I please Almighty God to bless
us together as we meditate in His Word this evening. Let's
turn to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 6, and we'll read verse
11. The book of Nehemiah, chapter
6, and reading verse 11. And I said, should such a man
as I flee, And who is there, that being as I am, would go
into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. You may remember that Nehemiah
was a man of God, and as we can read in the earlier chapters
of this account, that he was indeed the king's cupbearer. And he was the one who came before
the king. regularly and in the second chapter
we read that in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes
the king that wine was before him and I took up the wine and
gave it unto the king now I had not been before a four-time sad
in his presence Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy
countenance sad? Seeing thou art not sick, this
is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
and said unto the king, Let the king live for ever. Why should
not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's
sepulchres, lieth waste? And the gates thereof are consumed
with fire. Then the king said unto me, For
what dost thou make request? Now it's interesting here that
here was this man in the presence of the king. And we read this,
So I prayed to the God of heaven. It would seem therefore he prayed
in his heart. It wasn't words which the king
would have heard, but nonetheless, He didn't have really any time
to kind of think of a great long sentence or wonderful prayer,
but he had a real need. He wanted to ask the right things
and he wanted the king to receive what he said. So he prayed to
the God of heaven. And it should be an encouragement
to us that in any time in our life, there should never be a
situation where we don't have time to pray to the God in heaven. Doesn't have to be a long prayer,
does it? You know, we have a very short prayer in the Word of God
recorded by the Syrophoenician woman. And it was just this,
Lord, help me. It may have been that we don't
know what Nehemiah prayed, but nonetheless, he did pray. And
it's important for us that we pray in our little life. When
we're faced with situations, we shouldn't try and work things
out and come to a conclusion. We should pray to God who will
give us the words to speak and what to say. And so we're told,
then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make requests?
So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king, If
it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in
thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the
city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it. And the
king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him for now.
How long shalt thy journey be, and when will thou return? So
it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time. So we see
how the Lord is very gracious and we should not forget that
here was the Babylonian king and these Israelites had been
taken captive 70 years ago because they had rebelled against King
Nebuchadnezzar and they wouldn't follow him and you would think
well they were now going to continue living here in Babylon, but no,
the time which God had told the prophets years ago, they would
go down into Babylon for 70 years, 70 years had now come to pass
and therefore there was this deliverance that the king, the
last person that we would think of, encouraged Nehemiah to go
and return and to rebuild the city. Well, he did just that
and as you may well know, he wasn't alone because Ezra also
went and they were together as leaders returning to Jerusalem
to rebuild it and Nehemiah, when he got there, he wondered what
he would find and he didn't want people to realise what he was
doing so he went out by night and got on a horse and rode round
the outside of the city to see how bad the state was and he
came back and he realised that all the wall was broken down
and the temple had been destroyed and therefore there was a tremendous
amount of work to do. Anyway, by the grace of God they
set about rebuilding the walls and of course when the enemies
of God who we read of in this chapter, Tobiah, Sambalat and
Gishem, they heard what was happening, they were very annoyed. They
didn't want this to happen. and therefore they tried to stop
the work and we do find that the work was stopped for a time
but nonetheless they pressed on and they tried now to persuade
Nirmaya to have a meeting with them and they suggested he meets
in one of the villages. Well, of course, that wasn't
in Jerusalem. It was away from Jerusalem. Nehemiah recognized that this
was a cunning plan to get him away from the work. So he declined
to do it. And they asked him, as we know,
five times in total. But each time he refused, and
the last time they sent an open letter by Gashmu that they might
be able to see and to read, that the people might know what they'd
suggested. And again, he turned it down.
And then finally came into the house of Shemaiah, who was a
prophet, the son of Deliah, the son of Mehetabiel, who was shut
up. And he said, let us meet together
in the house of God, within the temple. And then they shut the
doors of the temple, for they will come to slay thee. Yea,
in the night will they come to slay thee. So that's the really
the introduction to these words we have before us tonight. And
we see that Nehemiah then, having heard all this by all these people
trying to get him away from the work, and yet he comes and says
now, he says, should such a man as I flee? Well, the reality
was that God had been with him. God had helped him. God had directed
him. And was he now going to turn
and say, well, I think that's irrelevant. I'll forget all about
that. I'll hear what these people say.
I'll go and have some meetings with them and see if we can work
out a nice friendly solution. No, he wasn't having any of that. He had a desire to do that which
God had commanded him to do. And therefore he says, should
such a man as I flee, and who is there that being as I am,
would go into the temple to save his life, I will not go in. Well, it's good to read here
of the confidence of a man of God. And we know there were many,
many difficulties. We know that wasn't an easy decision. And yet, you see, he was wonderfully
influenced by the Spirit of God and willing, therefore, to stand
firm and to not be persuaded by evil people. You may say,
well, that's all well and good, but how about us today? Well,
us today has not changed. There are many people today who
try and dissuade us from worshipping God, dissuade us from reading
the Bible, dissuade us from following God, dissuade us in the things
of God. The devil's still very active
today, as he was in this occasion. And you see, the devil never
gives up. Don't think that your life and
my life somehow will escape difficulties, because we won't. The life of
a Christian is never easy, but there is a wonderful consolation. And you know what that consolation
is? It's the same that Nehemiah and Ezra proved. And what was
it? God was with them. That's the
blessing. If God before us, who can be
against us? We may think perhaps The pathway
ahead is, we might even think, impossible. We at least think
it's very difficult. But you see, God can appear.
And God can make the rough places plain. God can make the mountains
to flow down at His presence. Naturally, the Lord Almighty
has made the mountains. They're His mountains. The difficulties
that may come into our lives have not come by chance. They've
come through the gracious, we might say, plan of Almighty God. Because God's plan for his people
is always good. The psalmist tells us, as for
God, his way is perfect. Sometimes we don't think it is.
The problem is we only look at what's happening now. We don't
know what's in the future. God knows what's in the future.
And God's planned the future. And God knows what's before us.
And therefore we should not be disappointed to think, well,
I didn't expect things to work out like this. I didn't expect
things to be as difficult and as hard as this. Well, we can
rest in the humble belief that God is with us. If God be with
us, who can be against us? People may try to be against
us. He may try and turn us away from the things of God. Indeed,
the devil will use all means that he can to turn us away from
the things of God. He did all that he could to stop
Nehemiah and Ezra rebuilding the walls and then rebuilding
the temple. And it was a battle, but it did
not succeed. God was with his people. And there was then that promise
that God had given to them that after 70 years captivity, which
they deserved and they knew they deserved it because they disobeyed
God. And therefore, that's where they
were. But God is gracious. God is merciful. God is kind. And therefore, in due time, he
fulfilled his promise. You see, God never tells lies. The devil does. Therefore, don't
listen to him. God is ever truthful. And you and I have the word of
God to encourage us in the day and age in which we live. You see, God was with his people
all those years ago. He's still with his people. And
it's wonderful if in our little lives we're able to remember
times perhaps when God appeared for us, when God answered our
prayers, when perhaps the future, the prospects seemed very dark
and very difficult, in fact almost impossible. Remember this, the
things which are impossible with men are possible with God. And what a blessing it is when
God gives us faith to believe that, to trust in him at all
times, believing that he will never leave us, nor forsake us,
so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not
fear what man shall do unto me. And so here we have Nehemiah. It's a wonderful book, Nehemiah.
Some of the word of God is really quite difficult to read and to
understand. But you know, Ezra and Nehemiah
are really relatively easy books and they're, I might say, quite
a joy to read because we have a picture, we understand what's
happening, and we can bless God for those simple truths which
are placed before us to encourage us. Well, should such a man as
I flee, and if that being as I am would go into the temple
to save his life, sometimes we may think, well, I need to save
my skin here. I don't want to do that. I don't
want to say that. That's going to cause me no end of problems.
Well, it may not. It may not. Because we have a
great God who can go before. You see, God is in control of
everyone's minds and everyone's utterances, everyone's speech,
everyone's words. You may find that difficult to
understand, but it is very, very true. I remember in my life once, I don't
often refer to things in my life, I remember once in my life, I
had someone come to my office to see me, and I knew what he'd
come for. And he wanted to come and he
wanted to reduce some fees that we were going to charge for a
specific job. And he came into my boardroom
and he sat there and he talked and he talked and he talked about
everything under the sun. He wasn't able to say what he'd
come for. And I just sat there really quite
amazed because in the end, he had to go away. He said, well,
goodbye, nice to have seen you. And really he hadn't said anything
of any consequence. And you may say, well, what had
happened? I'll tell you what had happened. God had very wonderfully
shut his mouth. And that was on one occasion.
God can shut people's mouths in our lives today. So they're not able to say perhaps
what they want to say. We live in God, don't we, sometimes? And yet God is almighty. And God knows what he will do.
And God brings us into these times of temptation, these times
of trial, these times which test our faith. You may say, what
is that? Well, I'll tell you what it is.
It's our faith in our God. That he will appear that he will
hear and answer prayer. God does hear and answer prayer. You only have to read the Bible,
don't you? There are many, many occasions
when God heard and delivered his people in amazing ways. When there appeared sometimes
to be no way, he did the impossible. Think
of perhaps the wonderful illustration of Israel when they came out
of Egypt, and they came into that place, the Red Sea. Well,
that was naturally an impossibility. What were they going to do? You
may not know, but the Red Sea was in front of the Israelites,
and the mountains were either side, coming down to the Red
Sea, and the Egyptians were behind them. And naturally speaking,
there was no way to escape. But God appeared and God spoke
to Moses what he should do. And he was to stretch out his
rod over the Red Sea. And that caused a dry path to
occur right across the Red Sea. Wonderful, wasn't it? God heard
the cry of Moses, no doubt the cries of the Israelites, to deliver
them. And he did. And of course, it
was far more than that really, because not only were Israel
delivered, but all the Egyptians were drowned when the waters
came back and covered them. It was a wonderful time of deliverance. Now our God has not changed. He is the same yesterday and
today and forever. Let us not fail to realise that
and let us trust in the Lord at all times. Now we have to
be very careful in these things because sometimes We may have
a plan and we want God to perform that plan and therefore we pray
that that plan might be carried out and that wonderful occurrence
will occur. Well, it may not be the purpose
of God to send a deliverance or an answer to prayer in that
particular way. Because God's ways are higher
than our ways. And one of the problems is this,
that if our prayer had perhaps been answered in just the way
that we wanted, we would have patted ourselves on the back
and said, well it was of course my wonderful prayer that brought
that about. Well God will have the honour
and glory. So it's good therefore to come
and to pray to God with an open mind. and seek that he will do
that which will be for his glory and he will appear and grant
us a deliverance. We need to leave the issue with
Almighty God because he won't disappoint us. It may not again
be to our timescale. God has his timescale. It's often
different to our timescale. But in the end is always best. What a mercy then, if you and
I can come rightly in our prayers, in our concerns to our God. Well, Nehemiah, you see, have
been able to commend and commit his way unto the Lord and the
Lord had appeared for him. And the Lord wasn't going to
leave him now in the midst of this situation. He wasn't going
to leave him to be taken in by this request of these evil people. He was going to give him strength
to stand firm. Well, on Fridays we came to almost
the end of Philippians. Remember what the Apostle Paul
said. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me. And we must not forget that.
We can't do all things ourselves. The Apostle knew that. But he
was able to confidently say, I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. You only have to read the account
of the Apostle Paul to see what wonderful deliverances he had. It's really worthwhile reading
through that 12th chapter and the 2nd of Corinthians and to
find out how God wonderfully appeared for him, wonderfully
blessed him and granted such gracious deliverances. And so
as you and I now walk on this earth, let us not be distressed. Let us not think that God doesn't
know anything about us. He knows everything about us.
He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what he has planned
for us. Exactly the same as he did the
Apostle Paul. And it really is a wonderful
account to read the Acts of the Apostles. It's really worth reading
if you need your faith to be strengthened, to read the Acts
of the Apostles from the beginning to the end, and you'll see how
the Lord graciously appeared on so many, many occasions. Wonderful deliverances, wonderful
blessings. Yes, it is good to be able to
read these things, and the Apostle tells us In the 20th chapter,
when he was in the midst of difficulties, all against him, what did he
say? He said, none of these things move me. Yes, he was firm in
the belief that his God would be with him. None of these things
move me, yes. Neither can I my life dear unto
myself, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel
of the grace of God. So you see we have encouragements,
we have encouraging words that the Lord permits to be written
for our encouragement. Well, we know that the Lord was
with the Apostle Paul. And we can believe, therefore,
he will be with us. He will be round about us. He
will not leave us nor forsake us. And so, should such a man
as I flee, well, we have a great and a glorious example in the
Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, it is a wonderful
example for us and we can read in prophecy about the Lord Jesus
Christ in the 50th chapter of Isaiah. We read in that chapter
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're told that, it's a lovely
chapter really, And we're told in that chapter that the Lord
set his face towards Jerusalem. He said, I gave my back to the
smiters, verse six, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord
God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore have I set my face like a flint. And I know that
I shall not be ashamed. Well, we know that, of course,
the Lord Jesus was not ashamed. But surely we have no greater
example than the Saviour. He knew what was before him,
but he did not back away. He did not turn round. He endured
all that Almighty God had given him to do in that great and glorious
act that he was called upon to do in order to redeem our souls,
to save our souls. You follow his life, constant
difficulties, Didn't have a comfortable life, didn't he? Didn't have
a lovely bed to lie upon, did he? Didn't really have a home
to call his own? Didn't have a stack of clothes
to keep on changing? No, he just really had what he
lived in. And yet you see, above all that,
he had to suffer. He was criticized. Don't be surprised
if you're criticised. The Lord was, and he went about
doing good. People misunderstood him. People may misunderstand us. It doesn't matter. Remember,
if God be for us, who can be against us? And so here was the
Saviour then, setting His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He knew, you see, that was the
aim, that was the end, that was where He would be called upon
to give His life as that one sacrifice for sin. There have been, for hundreds
of years, those sacrifices that the high priest had offered up
on the altar in the temple, in the tabernacle and in the temple.
But now the time drew near when the Saviour, who had been prophesied
in the beginning in that Garden of Eden that he would rose the
serpent's head, was now coming to pass. and that was before
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that he'd wonderfully
introduced the Lord's Supper in the upper room, and it is
wonderful, never tire of meditating and thinking upon it, that there
he'd partaken of the Passover, the last time it was needful
for the Passover to be taken. And having done that, which of
course, set forth the glorious picture of the Saviour suffering
on our behalf and for that great atonement and the wonderful shedding
of blood. The Saviour himself then instituted
the Lord's Supper and what a picture that is for us today. as, by the grace of God, were
able to partake of it, to think of his broken body, his shed
blood, invaluable blood, that that sets forth. And having,
of course, done that, he then went out into the Garden of Gethsemane. And in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he knelt down to pray unto his father. And being in agony, in agony, and what was before
him. Don't underestimate the cost
of your salvation. Being in agony, it was as though
there were great drops of blood falling to the ground. And he
prayed to his father, and part of that prayer was this. Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thine, be done. He set his face as a flint to
Jerusalem. And here he was, being in agony. Well, it was not possible that
that cup should pass from him. He had to. Drink that cup, that
cup of suffering, right up so that you and I might receive the glorious gift of salvation
to take away all our sins. What a mercy and what a blessing. And of course, it didn't end
there because he was mocked in the judgment hall yes, mocked
as the king of the Jews and yet he was and it's quite amazing
that Pilate you see, had to write that notice that was placed on
the cross Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews and written
in those three languages so that everybody will be able to read
it and be under no misapprehension and he wouldn't change it He
couldn't change it, because it was true. And there was the suffering
Saviour. Too weak to carry His cross,
suffering so greatly, I had to get someone to carry it for Him.
Now to the cross, and now we see His love, glorious love,
to that thief. That thief initially joined with the other thief in
cursing the Lord, but then you see the Spirit of God came upon
him. He was able to say, we need justly,
because we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath
done nothing amiss. And he said, Lord, remember me
when there are coming sins in thy kingdom. Did the Lord turn
away from him? Did he say, you've been too bad?
There's no hope for you. What we see there was confession
and a humble request. And the Lord said, Today shalt
thou be with me in paradise. And then the Lord had to suffer
those three hours when his father hid his face from him. Yes, he'd
never been without the fellowship of his father from eternity. Now he was on that cross suffering
those three hours of agony. when his father hid his face.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Those are the words
of the cross. But you see, the work was done. The price was paid. He satisfied
the demands of the law of God. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
walk away, didn't run away. He did his father's will. And
then able to utter those glorious words, it is finished. The whole plan of salvation completed
on that cross at Calvary. What a wonderful, wonderful word
it was. And can we tonight rejoice in
it? Well, said Nehemiah, should such
a man as I flee, The Lord Jesus could not flee. Otherwise, that
work of redemption would not have been completed. And we would
not have been saved. And we would have been eternally
lost. Tonight, can we bless God then for our salvation? Can we praise him for it? I hope
we can. And can we go our way rejoicing
to think the Lord Jesus, he didn't go away. And so we have this
example here of Nehemiah in a much lesser way, but nonetheless a
way that you and I can understand. Tempted to listen to those evil
men. And yet, by the grace of God,
able to stand firm. And may we today be able to come
in with the Apostle Paul and say, as I already said, but none
of these things move me. However great temptations may
be, not to be moved, but to press on. The Word of God tells us
to press toward the mark. that is set before us in the
Gospel. When it's pressed toward the
Saviour, pressed toward the finishing mark. Oh, the Apostle Paul knew
the need for it. And there is a pressing, it's
not an easy journey. The journey through this life
is not easy, never has been, never will be. But the prospect
is wonderful. there's a prospect of peace and
eternal happiness and no sorrow and no sighing and no sin. Perfection with the Saviour and
the whole Church of God. It's very hard for us to really
imagine such a wonderful environment and yet what we're told is the
Lord has gone to repair a place for us. And as you said, if I
go to repair a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there he may be also. That's the prospect for all the
church of God. And so may we not be discouraged
as you and I pass through time. may be encouraged as we read
an account like this of Nehemiah and realize, yes, God gave him
grace to persevere. My friend, I believe today God
gives his children grace to persevere against storm and wind and tide,
as the Psalmist said in 107th Psalm, so he bringeth them to
their desired haven. Glory at last. The Lord brings
us safely through all the storms
of life to our desired haven. What a mercy and what a blessing
that is. And may we therefore tonight
be able to come truly and rejoice in the wonderful plan of salvation.
Rejoice in what the Saviour did. Rejoice in what the saints of
God have done. We've only touched really on the Apostle Paul and
Nehemiah, but you can trace it out in your own time. Moses and
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, David, they all had difficulties. But God was with them. That's
a great favour, isn't it? God was with them. You know,
think of Daniel. Daniel is a well-known character,
isn't he? We know about Daniel and the lion's den, don't we?
And right at the end of the book of Daniel, Daniel was told this,
but, go thy way, go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest
and stand in thy lot at the end of thy days. He was to stand
firm in the path in the position that God had placed him. Yes,
and you and I are the same today. God's placed us in this world. And if we're his children, we're
placed here for his honour and for his glory. We are as lights in a dark world. It's very humbling, isn't it,
to think that we, unworthy sinners of the earth, should be used
by Almighty God to shine forth the light of the glorious Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Well, may we tonight be able to rejoice in what God
has done and remember what the Apostle said Just like Nehemiah,
I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.