If you turn in your Bibles to
Nehemiah chapter 11, we haven't been in Nehemiah for some time. The story is a great one. The story is an amazing one.
It's a story of our God. And Nehemiah, as we recall, in
chapter 1, was in Babylon, and he heard that the walls of Jerusalem
were broken down and he saw and he heard that these people there
were in affliction and reproach. the wall of Jerusalem is broken
down, the gates thereof are burned with fire." And we know from
our studies in Nehemiah that the Lord moved the hearts of
Nehemiah, moved the hearts of the king and the queen, and moved
the hearts of people to bring them back, to rebuild that wall. And that wall, remarkably, as
we learn in chapter 6, was built in 52 days, right around that
city, a great wall, a wall big enough for people to walk on. And in verse 16 of chapter 6,
they know that the enemies and the heathen, they heard about
it and they saw these things and they were cast down in their
own eyes. They had been mocking God and
mocking God's people, for they perceived, they were cast down,
for they perceived that this work was wrought by our God. And in Chapter 8 we have that
glorious gathering of God's people and they are led in those chapters
to listen to the Word of God and to hear about it. And they
wept as they heard about God's judgment on their forebears and
God's judgment on them. And yet they heard the Gospel
as well. because Nehemiah and the others
said to them in that day in verse 10 of chapter 8. He said unto
them, Go your way, eat the fat. and drink the sweet, and send
portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. Make sure everyone
is eating the fat, make sure everyone is drinking the sweet. For this day is holy unto our
Lord, neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord. Note it well, the Lord's joy. The Lord's joy in His work, the
Lord's joy in His people is your strength. So the Levites still
all the people. Hold your peace for the day is
holy, neither be ye grieved. And in some sense as we move
through Nehemiah, we come ultimately in Chapter 12 to what for Nehemiah
is the culmination of this remarkable work. And that is this amazing
celebration at the dedication of the walls. We have this amazing,
wonderful picture that you'll see, Lord Willie, next week of
these two bands going surrounding Jerusalem with praise, singing
the praises of our great and awesome God. But prior to that,
in chapter 11, which we're just looking at briefly this evening,
we actually see the God's people in God's land will be a people
and God's city, which as we have seen was a city in ruin, a city
desolate, a city in which it was easy for anyone to come and
go. Now is a city which is walled. And for God to be honoured, a
city is a city to be peopled. Let's read some of these verses
at the beginning of chapter 11. And the rulers of the people
dwelt at Jerusalem, and the rest of the people also cast lots,
to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city,
and nine parts to dwell in the other cities. and the people
blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at
Jerusalem. Now these are the chief of the
prophets that dwell in Jerusalem, but in the cities of Judah dwelt
everyone in his possession in their cities, to it Israel, the
priests and the Levites and the Nephihims and the children of
Solomon's servants. And at Jerusalem dwelt certain
of the children of Judah and the children of Benjamin, those
two tribes that had been sent into captivity in Babylon, and
of the children of Judah, and then it goes on to talk about
them. And they are a numbered people. They are a people who are gathered
and they are a people who are blessed. to live in Jerusalem
and you might say, why didn't the people want to live in Jerusalem? Why do they have to cast lots? Why does there have to be this
encouragement in Jerusalem? Of course Jerusalem was the centre
of all this antagonism. Outside of Jerusalem and Jerusalem
until the walls were built, there was an easy coming and going. There was trade and there was
all sorts of activities as we've seen between the likes of Sambhalat
and Tobiah and the people around, activities that were done on
the Sabbath, activities that were done with the freedom. In
a sense there was a freedom of these people to come into that
holy city, to come to that temple even. And then the Nehemiah comes
and the walls are built. We went through those chapters
where again and again the opposition arose. Opposition that was deceitful,
opposition that contrived all sorts of means again and again.
They tried to stop the building of the wall. Of course the wall
separates. The wall protects. The wall shields
from outside. The wall, as we've seen in Nehemiah,
is a wall that is necessary for the worship of God. God is worshipped
in a separate community. And the word I'd like to look
at, or the phrase I'd like to look at this evening as much
as anything else, is that word that's in verse 18 and in verse
1. It's called the Holy City. This is the first time in the
Scriptures that Jerusalem is called the Holy City. What a remarkable thing to describe
what just prior to this was nothing but a heap of ruins. What a place,
what a name. It's holy of course. The word
holy means to separate. It comes from that word to cut
out of humanity, you cut out a section. It is separated and
of course It can bear that name, that adjective, holy, only because
it is the place where the Lord God Almighty reveals Himself. And the Lord God Almighty dwells. Where He dwells, and where He
lives, and where He touches, and where He works, holiness
is done. He's the one who creates the
separation. He's the one who does the building
of this wall. He's the one who moved the hearts
of people to build that temple. He's the one through his son
who is worshipped in that altar that's in that temple. He's the
one that's represented in those priests. He's the one in this
house, in this city, where he reveals himself as the covenant-keeping
God. We remember that amazing prayer
of Nehemiah's in chapter 1, and he went through again and again,
and we saw him describe God. He calls Him the God of heaven. the great and terrible God in
verse 5 of chapter 1. But then he says he's a God that
keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him and obey his
commandments. And he as a man who lives in
a holy city and has come to create this holy city as a refuge for
God's people, as a sanctuary for God's people, as a place
where God's name will be honoured. He's not shy. God's children, in the face of
God's holiness, acknowledge themselves to be sinners. He says, I pray
before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel, thy
servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel. And
then he says something which is wonderful. He doesn't say
that they're their sins. He says, the sins of the children
of Israel which we have sinned against thee. Both I and my Father's
house have sinned. We have dealt, we have dealt,
very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments,
nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servants,
Moses." Nehemiah is acknowledging that
he is a sinner like all the others. The judgments that fell upon
Jerusalem, that caused these people to be scattered, were
judgments that were righteous judgments, that God was just. And here we have these people
now gathered together, these people who have acted corruptly,
these people who have sinned against God, they are now called
to be citizens of and to dwell in a place which is called a
holy city. What a blessing. What a blessed
transformation. What an amazing thing God has
done. He does it for His name's sake. He does it for His glory. He does it to create a place
where He will be worshipped. will be revealed, His character
of grace, His character of love, His character of mercy, if my
understanding of Romans 9 is right. This is why God has left
this world as it is, so that He will have mercy on whom He
has mercy, and that then the gospel writer, the apostle,
asks them questions and he answers the questions and the questions
go to the very heart of why this creation is like it is. What if God willing to show his
wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known, brothers and sisters listen to this, the riches of
his glory, on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared
unto glory. And we know that that aforepreparation
was before the foundation of the world. Even us, whom He hath
called not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles. And as he said in Hosea, this
is a beautiful description of what this city is like and what's
going on in Nehemiah, I will call them my people which were
not my people and I'll call her beloved which was not beloved. and it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people,
they shall be called the children of the living God." The culmination
of all of God's purposes in eternity. The culmination is a city, a
holy city, a populated city, a city that is a holy city because
a holy God lives there. A city that's called a holy city
because holy people live there. What a glorious description. Whenever we think about the city
and think about these things in Nehemiah, we need to take
our glance further forward and up higher and we need to look
We need to look into Revelation and we need to think again and
again about these amazing, amazing words. As John in Revelation
22, he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain
and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God. You see, Nehemiah and these people
knew that this was a shadow. They were looking forward to
a city whose builder and maker was God. They saw the work that
was laid before them. They did the work that was laid
before them by the grace of God, but they were looking further
ahead. They were looking to something
much more glorious than stones and doors in Jerusalem. They
were looking to the Lord Jesus. And he was carried, and having
the glory of God this city, and her light was like upon a stone,
most precious even a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a great
wall high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels,
and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes,
of the children of Israel. We'll come back to it. But as
we go through Nehemiah, if you look through Nehemiah chapter
11 and even into chapter 12, you have these lists of names. And we're often, if you were
like me, when we're reading through them, we find it tedious. We
find it difficult to read the names. But we must remember,
brothers and sisters, that God has named them for a purpose. And let me give you a verse that
might cause you to smile with joy when you are caused to read
these lists, or even caused to skip over them. in Psalm 87 is
talking about Zion and talking about the foundation is in the
holy mountain. The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken
of thee, O city of God. I will make mention of Rahab
and Babylon to them that know me. Behold, Philistia and Tyre
and Ethiopia, this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be
said, this and that man was born in her, and the highest himself
shall establish her. The Lord shall count when he
writeth up the people. That's why we have the lists
in the scriptures, don't we? Our God knows all things and
he numbers his people and he names his people and he calls
them all by name. The Lord shall count when he
writeth up his people. And while we're in Nehemiah again,
just look at how he counts his people. It's just beautiful that
they are named and numbered. Named and numbered. In verse
11, verse 6, you have all the sons of Perez that dwelt at Jerusalem. There's 400, 3 score and 8 valiant
men. So we're inclined to round numbers
up or down to make it more convenient for us. The scriptures never
do it, do they, in these lists? In verse 8, 928. In verse 12, 822. In verse 14,
128. In verse 18, 284. Verse 19, 172. The numbering is precise. The numbering is exact. The naming is clear. And one of the other things that
I'd like to point out to you is that so many of these lists,
when you actually look at them, say for example in verse 4 you
have the children of Judah and then you have Athaiah, son of
Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephaniah,
son of Mahalileel, the children of Perez. And in those other
verses like 13 and 14 and others down there, you have these lists
and these genealogies are there before us and they go back. They go back a long time in Israel's
history. Many of these ones are actually
just copies of lists that are in 1 Chronicles 9, which is early
in Israel's history, between the time of Saul and David. God has His people. It's not as if God saves according
to bloodlines as some people think. It's just showing that
God is faithful to His promises. He's faithful to His covenant
promises. He's faithful to those promises
He made to those people. And that's why in Revelation
22 this great wall with the 12 gates, and at the 12 gates, the
12 angels and the names written thereon, which are the names
of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel, and we know from the
scriptures. that the children of Israel are
a representation of the elect of God. And we know that until
the Lord Jesus comes, there must be a tribe called Judah, and
there must be a tribe called Levi. He is the lion of the tribe
of Judah, which is why God, throughout that 1,500 years of awful history,
preserved his people He preserved His people because
all of them are emblematic of the elect of God being preserved,
and all of them are there to point forward to the Lord Jesus. God is faithful. God will save His people. God has saved His people. So this city is to be a people
city, even though these numbers are small. It comes to less than
3,000 people according to the list here. It's still a remarkable
thing that God will have His city with His temple, God will
have His city with His wall, that God will have a city where
He is worshipped and God will have a city where He will be
worshipped and the sacrifices that point to His son will be
morning and evening and those festival times, those feast times,
those times of gathering will be a time where God has his people
in that city to have it ready and to have it prepared. The
other thing I'd like you to see is that these people are named
and numbered and they are given specific positions. All of God's children, all of
God's children throughout history have particular and special places
in God's world and no one else but you can do the things that
God has laid before you. Imagine those people building
that wall, mocked by Tobiah and Sambalad. Just a pathetic effort,
isn't it? there's an Israelite picking
up a stone and dusting it off and bringing it over and putting
it in the wall and they say, anyone can do that. What a waste
of time. No, they can't in God's kingdom. That rock, in that place, in
that wall and that work will be done by that particular person
and absolutely no one else. So in verse 6 we have these 468
men that are called valiant men. But it's an ordered city. In verse 9 you have Joel was
an overseer. and a man called Judah was the
second over the city. This city is ordered. And then
from verse 10 down to 19 we have the priests and the provision
for the priests. In verse 11 we have Shariah who
was the ruler of the house of God. He had a particular place
and a particular work to do. in verse 12, and their brethren
that did the work of the house. In verse 13, we have the man
who is the chief of the fathers. Verse 14, these brethren, mighty
men of valor, and over them was an overseer, Zabdiel, son of
one of the great men. And then it talks further about
the Levites, but the Levites weren't a disorganised group.
They had a chief, verse 16. And these people, these chiefs,
had oversight of the outward business of the house of God. And then down in 17 we have Mattaniah,
the son of Aphesath. He was the principal to begin
Thanksgiving in prayer. You see in back, the choir is
the second among his brethren. And so down when we come to these
others, we have porters in verse 19, and their brethren kept the
gates and they are numbered. And then the people in the land
are ordered again, aren't they? It's not just a willy-nilly,
you do what you want to do things. You see in verse 20, And the
residue of Israel, of the priests of the Levites, were in all the
cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance. So the land
around which supported the temple, which was the place of the worship
of God, was an ordered inheritance. And we see down in verse 36 that
these Levites were in divisions, they weren't just willy-nilly. The Levites who taught the Word
of God, the Levites who led the people, to honour God, the Levites
and others who were responsible for bringing those things into
the temple that allowed for that fire to burn continuously, for
those offerings to be made every day, for those feast times to
be done in order. All of those things around the
worship of God are ordered. And remarkably in verse 23 and
24 we find that this ordering is actually supported by a pagan. The king that's referred to there
is Artaxerxes. The very pagans are going to
make sure that God is worshipped in His due order. Our God runs. In verse 24 you have, this man
was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people. God will get praise. God will get worshipped. He'll
be worshipped by his people. And the pagans will assist us,
brothers and sisters. God rules to get worship for
Himself. And so we see that the priests,
the people are in their given positions, they have their specific
tasks. And the priests are honoured
and provided for and dispersed and distributed. And these numbers might seem
relatively small. This whole band of people numbers
about 40,000 people in all of that land of Israel. And outside
of Jerusalem, as we've seen in Nehemiah, they face stiff and
serious opposition. It's a good thing that they have
a king from outside to watch over them. Again and again we
are reminded in scripture that numbers are assessed by God in
terms of their worth and their significance, and not by men. Gideon, of course, is a great
example, isn't he? He had that great army of 32,000,
maybe enough for 32,000 to take on these Midianite hordes, which
were like grasshoppers down in that valley, and God reduced
them down to 10,000. 10,000 is too many. God is going to make sure that
when the victory is won, it will be won by the hand of God, 300
is all you need, Gideon. And it's remarkable, isn't it?
What do they march down there with? They have a pot and a light. There's not a mention that they
carried spears. I'm sure they did have some sort of weaponry
about them. But all it says All it says in Judges is that they
had this pot that they broke, and they had a voice, they had
a word to say, and all the enemies of God were dispersed. These people, as we said earlier,
are unnamed people, unnumbered people. We are unnamed people
and we are unnumbered people. God knows the sparrow, a little
insignificant bird that falls in the jungle outside of Anyone
soft, God says he's running forward to the ground. He knows and numbers
the sparrows. He says he has numbered the hairs
on your head. He has them numbered. They've
always been numbered by God. But all of this points forward
to the fact that His people are numbered. They are numbered in
eternity. They are numbered and named with
the Lord Jesus. They are numbered with the Lord
Jesus as He walked upon this earth. They were numbered with
Him in heaven. They are numbered with Him on
that cross. They are numbered with Him in
the new creation. Not one is missing. Not one will fail to do God's
will. Not one will fail to achieve
His purposes. But they are numbered to make
up this holy city. You see in Isaiah 46.13 he talks
about this city, the real city. He says, I will place salvation,
I will place the Lord Jesus in Zion, for Israel my glory. And this city is a measured city,
and it has a wall, and because it has a wall, it has gates. Back to Revelation 22 and we'll
finish. Let's try and finish delightfully.
There are three gates on the east, on the north three gates,
the south three gates and the west three gates. And the wall
of the city had twelve foundations. You've already seen that there
are the twelve tribes. of Israel, and now the wall of
the city has twelve foundations, and in them the names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had
a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof,
and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare. The length is as large as the
breadth." You see, it is a cube. The city is a cube, and whenever
we think of a cube in scripture, we need to be reminded that there
is one cube, and there was one on this mountain. Solomon built
one, the rubber bull built a second one. A cube is the holiest of
holies. It's perfectly square, and it's
exactly the same height. The original one was about 30
feet square and 30 feet high. That's what this city represents. It's all about the Lord Jesus.
And he measures the wall thereof, 144 cubits according to the measure
of man, that is of an angel. And the building of the wall
of it was of jasper and the city was pure gold, like under clear
glass. And the foundation of the wall
of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones,
the first, and it lists them all there. And the twelve gates,
first twenty-one, were twelve pearls, and that every several
gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was of pure
gold, as it were transparent glass." But this is the heart
of it all, isn't it? And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. and the nations
of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and
the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not
be shut by day, nor shall there be no night there, and they shall
bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it. And there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defieth, It's a
holy city. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. It's a remarkable picture of
what Nehemiah was working but on a shadow of, isn't it? God
dwells amongst His people. God dwells in His people. But the glory of the Gospel is
that we dwell in God, brothers and sisters. What a great and
awesome Saviour that takes people like us and makes us holy and
puts us in a holy city and surrounds us with walls of fire and protects
us and uses us as a place where He gives glory for Himself. Glory because all the work is
His. Glory because we are the recipients,
just the recipients of free and sovereign grace from our Saviour.
Let's pray.