May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let us turn to the
book of Nehemiah and the first chapter and the last verse, that's
verse 11. The book of Nehemiah, chapter
1, and reading verse 11. O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now
Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to
the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name, and
prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day. Grant him mercy in
the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer. books of Ezra and Nehemiah are
very interesting books because they direct us to the time when
Israel came to the end of those years that they'd been in captivity
in Babylon for those 70 years it had been a very sad period
in the history of Judah but we see the wonderful mercy and the
wonderful love really of God toward his ancient people. And
we should believe that we worship today the same God, the great
God, the eternal God. And here in this first chapter
of Nehemiah, we have a record of his prayer. And we're very
thankful, we should be very thankful, there are a number of prayers
detailed in the Word of God to encourage us, to strengthen us
and to direct us how you and I should pray. Many years after,
of course, but nonetheless the Lord God has not changed. And as we read in this first
chapter, Nehemiah was concerned about the situation which existed
amongst the Jews which were left behind at Jerusalem and also
concerning Jerusalem itself. And he was told that the remnant
left of the captivity were in great affliction and reproach
and the wall of Jerusalem also was broken down and the gates
thereof were burned with fire. And this made Nehemiah very sad. and we're told he came to pass
when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned
certain days and fasted some of you young people have been
of course to the Bible study when James spoke about fasting
and here's an example of Nehemiah when he fasted and so they fasted
and prayed before the God of heaven and it is significant
of course that fasting by itself doesn't actually benefit it is
fasting and praying which receives the benefit and so he prayed
and again just to go through this prayer very simply it's
good to notice how he commences he commences by exalting God
he says I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and
terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love
him and observe his commandments. You'll find as you read the Word
of God and you read the various prayers of Hezekiah and also
Ezra and David and people like that, that the position was that
they always exalted God he didn't come and treat God as just a
little person of no consequence they came before God with some
realization of how great he was and how powerful he was and yet
how condescending he was we have these words before us to instruct
us today that we should approach God acknowledging what he is
and how great and powerful O Lord God of heaven the great and terrible
God that keepeth the covenant and mercy for them that love
him and observe his commandments we shouldn't forget that and
observe his commandments I suppose people today think they can carry
on in their life just they want to and that God won't really
notice what they're doing and then they'll suddenly have a
request and expect God to instantly hear and answer their prayer
well that's not the way that God performs and even on this
occasion when Nehemiah clearly prayed very personally and very
graciously to Almighty God he didn't receive an instant answer
because here we're told that it was in the month of Chislew
that when he was in Shushan the palace when these people came
and after a few days of weeping and etc he then prayed to his
God and the second chapter we're told and it came to pass in the
month Nisan in the 20th year so there were several months
in actual fact lapsed between what he had asked and when anything
came to pass and we can become very impatient in our little
lives and we can expect answers immediately and it's not wrong
to do that, to expect the Lord will hear and the Lord God will
answer our prayers, it's not wrong but we need to recognise
that our time scale is not always in accordance with God's time
scale and we should therefore be willing to wait for God to
hear and God to answer our prayers And then he desires, and he desires
very humbly, there's not a demand, but he says, let thine ear now
be attentive, and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the
prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and
night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess 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
very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments,
nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant
Moses.' Well this was a very honest confession. And my friends,
what a blessing it is when you and I can come like this, with
an honest confession to our God and to be really sorry and truly
repent of those sins which we have done and he doesn't mince
his words does he? he says we have dealt very corruptly
against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes
nor the judgments which thou commandest thy servant Moses
well We live of course in a day, a New Testament day but nonetheless
there are many words in the Word of God which God has instructed
us in to keep His commands, His statutes and how often we find
that we have ignored the Word of God and we just consider,
well I don't think it's too relevant and in any case it's not too
important and therefore we've passed it over well that's not
right is it? and here Nehemiah recognised
it was not right and therefore he says remember I beseech thee
the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses saying if ye
transgress I will scatter you abroad among the nations the
Lord is a just God we must not think that we can do that which
is contrary to the Word of God but yet we here we recognise
His mercy because in 9th verse we read but if ye turn unto me
and keep my commandments and do them though there were of
you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven yet will I
gather them from thence and I will bring them unto the place that
I have chosen to set my name there. So he is pleading there
for God to graciously remember his promise to Moses all those
years ago. And you and I today can plead
to our God the promises of his word. We can pray to him with
a humble confidence that he will hear and he will answer our prayers
but we need to always come and to pray in that right way seeking
that if it is his purpose to hear and to answer it will be
in accordance indeed with his divine and gracious will because
sometimes our wills are not good wills we might think they are
We might think we can pray and we can expect God to answer but
sometimes our wills are not in accordance with God's will and
then we don't receive answers to those prayers and sometimes
we're disappointed and sometimes we question why has God not answered
my prayer? Why hasn't God done that that
I requested? Well, we must always remember
that God has, for you and me, a perfect way. If we are His
children, we will prove the words that were spoken of Israel of
old. He led them forth by the right way that they might go
to a city of habitation. And that way was not an easy
way, but it was the right way. And therefore, as we come to
Almighty God, in prayer. We should always be concerned
that we are praying with that desire that God's will might
be done in our lives. It's a great blessing to come
in such a way as that. And so Nehemiah goes on and says,
Now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou hast redeemed
by thy great power and by thy strong hand." Well that was,
we might say, in a natural way they were brought out of Israel,
out of Egypt rather, with a wonderful evidence of God's power. And
they were redeemed from that situation. They were delivered
from it. Now the same is the privilege
of God's people today. And remember that all of God's
people are His servants. We should always realize that
if we are a person, a chosen person, a child of God, we are
His servants. And if we are His servants, we
are those who have been redeemed. Just like the words here, whom
thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand
and it's significantly true in every true believer they have
been redeemed by the great power of God and you might say well
why is that? well it's very simple because
you and I are born naturally spiritually dead and we need
the power of God to raise us from that spiritually dead condition
into that time of spiritual life and if that has occurred in our
life then what a favour it is and then we can acknowledge that
this word is true of us that has redeemed by thy great power
and by thy strong hand nothing that you and I have done ourselves
no it's through the glorious sacrifice of the Saviour that
Lord Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from all our sins. Israel
of old were redeemed from their position. And what a mercy it
is if you and I know the wonderful favour of being redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. You see, that will set us on
our way, thankful and rejoicing and praising God. And so he then
comes back really to the beginning of his prayer as he concludes
it. With these words, O Lord, I beseech
thee. Let now thine ear be attentive
to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants
who desire to fear thy name and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant
this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For
I was the king's cupbearer. He wanted to receive mercy at
the hand of this great king, Artaxerxes. Now, he knew not
what the future held. And you and I, my friends today,
don't know what the future holds. We don't know what the Lord has
ordained for us. Well, in the case of Nehemiah,
the Lord brought about a wonderful outcome to his prayer, but it
was in a way that we might say really tested his faith, because
he was the king's cupbearer. That means that he gave the king
his wine. He was very close to the king
and no doubt he would often have spoken to the king and the king
would have observed him as we read here, because he took this
wine like he did normally. And the king said, why is thy
countenance sad? See now, not sick. This is nothing
else but sorrow of hearts. Well, that was a good discernment,
wasn't it? By the king. But of course, it
was true. And the situation was that Nehemiah
was sad. He was sad because of the condition
of Jerusalem and the people that existed there. He was really
sad. And no doubt he was waiting for
an answer to his prayer. And that answer hadn't come,
and therefore he was sad because of it. Well, he was then afraid
because the king had discerned his situation. And he said unto
the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance
be sad? when the city, the place of my father's suffocers, lieth
waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire. This
was quite a brave statement to make before the king. But again,
we have so many evidences in the word of God about being truthful
and honest in the situation which faces us, because he could very
easily have brushed off that statement by the king he could
very easily say well I don't think so I think I'm all right
he could have just brushed it off but you see he didn't and he said let the king live
forever why should not my countenance be sad when the city the place
of my father's sepulcher lieth waste and the gates thereof are
consumed with fire and the king then asked him What does thou
request? What was the reaction? Well,
in that very short period of time, we might almost say a split
second, what did he do? He prayed to the God of heaven. Now this should be a good example
for all of us, young and old. You children, you must remember
that there's no occasion when you do not have time to pray
to God. No time in your life when you
don't have time to pray to God. This man, Nehemiah, in the presence
of the king, the king had asked him a question and he wanted
to answer it properly. He didn't want to answer it in
a wrong way. So what did he do? He prayed
to the God of heaven. Now come back to the verse we
have, the 11th verse. He'd previously prayed to God
that the Lord would hear and be attentive to him and hear
his prayer. And here really was his prayer
being answered. And no doubt he never expected
the king to ask him a question so direct as this. But again,
The first thing he did was to pray. And it's very important
in our lives today to be found praying. A praying people. Praying individually. In whatever
situation confronts us. To pray for wisdom. To pray for
understanding. You know we have examples, don't
we? We were on the market stall and we've been on the market
stall very often. And sometimes people have asked us difficult
questions. Now, we'd be very foolish to
just try and answer those questions ourselves. But it's a good thing
if, in that split second between the question and answer, we pray
to the God of heaven that he will help us and give us to speak
the right answer and to say the right thing. And nothing is too
small for Almighty God. What a mercy it is that we do
have a God who hears and answers prayer. And perhaps some of us
have experienced situations. We may have been in a difficult
scene, a tight corner. We haven't known what to do or
say. We pray to the Lord God of heaven and he's made a way. He's helped us and he's given
us answers. So here was this man, Nehemiah,
clearly a man of God, praying to the God of heaven. Of course,
you see, the time had come when God would appear for him and
God would answer the prayer in a very remarkable way. We're not told that Nehemiah
previously had demanded this and that and the other. No, he
had, we might think, a very open mind to how God would come and
how God would appear for him. And it's good for us today to
have an open mind when we come to God in prayer. I do tell you
sometimes, and I'll tell you again now, in the book of Chronicles,
just before here, in the first book, we read of the little prayer
of a man called Jabez. It's a very simple prayer. And he prays like this, O that
thou wouldst bless me indeed and enlarge my coast. He didn't
lay any conditions down. He didn't say, I want you to
bless me in this way. I want you to grant me this favor
and this blessing. No, he didn't. He prayed very
simply, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed. Because what he knew
was this, that what God did would be a good blessing and it would
be the blessing that he needed and it would be the blessing
that brought honour and glory to God. And those are the things
that you and I should have in mind when we come and pray to
God. Nehemiah had sought the Lord
that he would hear and answer And he asked this that the Lord
would prosper his way. Nothing wrong in asking that.
That the Lord would prosper our way. We don't know how that will
come to pass. And we shouldn't really be too
concerned about how it will come to pass. Because we can be sure
that what God does is a perfect doing and it is for our best
And it is for his honour and for his glory. And so he prayed
to the king of heaven. Remember, the king had asked
him what he wanted, what he should do, and then he could be very
bold. And he said, if thy servant have
found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah,
unto the city of my father Sepulchre, that I may build it. and the
king said unto him the queen also sitting by him for how long
shall my journey be? and when will they return? so
it pleased the king to set me send me and I set him a time
and then he asked the king for letters then he asked the king
to provide materials and the king agreed to all these things
See, the Lord had planned everything. The Lord had gone before. And
what did it show? It showed His wonderful favour
to Judah, to His ancient people, who did not deserve any favour. But God was faithful, very faithful,
because He had told them by the prophets previously Jeremiah
etc that they would go into captivity for those 70 years and the Lord
brought the time when they would be brought out of that time of
captivity in Babylon well how was it to come to pass well we
read something of it here wasn't the whole picture of course but
It's part of the picture that Nehemiah was granted the strength
and the courage to ask for those things which were needful in
this instance. And so we're told then he journeyed
on and he came to Jerusalem. He didn't really know what he
was going to see completely and perhaps he was a bit fearful
of people seeing him and asking him questions. So what did he
do? He went round the city by night. This isn't the only occasion
in the Word of God when somebody did something by night. I wonder
whether you young people know another occasion when somebody
did something by night. Well, it was a man called Nicodemus. He was an important person, but
he wanted to come to Jesus. He wanted to ask Him questions.
And he came by night. but they did come, they did do
that which was necessary and so Nehemiah came and he went
round Jerusalem and he saw what a state it was in and against
that there were also those people who when they heard that he'd
come and his intention was to build up Samballa and Tobiah
they spoke against him but you see it didn't stop him there
will be adversaries in our life we shouldn't think that just
because God has encouraged us because God has directed us because
God has guided us that there won't be opposition be sure of
this the devil endeavours to stop us in everything which is
going to bring honour and glory to his great and holy name that's
one of the things and I think stops people today taking up
their cross and following the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's perhaps the reproach that
they may have to face. It may be the opposition and
of course there will be opposition. The devil, remember, he never
gives up. He is always an enemy and he
always will be. He hates God and he hates the
people of God. and he hates the way of God and
he hates people praying to God so never be surprised that you
have opposition in your spiritual life but expect it but believe
as Nehemiah did that he was praying to that great God who would hear
and would answer prayer and the very last verse that we read
together in this second chapter We're told, then answered I them
and said unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us. He was blessed with faith. He
prayed before, as we read in this earlier verse, that the
Lord would prosper them. And so here we have him confirming
that to Samballah and the Horonites and Tobiah, that God would indeed
prosper them therefore we your servants would arise and build
and he tells them but you have no portion nor right nor memorial
in Jerusalem. Well it's a very encouraging
account to be able to read in this book of Nehemiah how God
appeared for them and how you can read on the walls were built
up and the gates were put back in place the Lord was faithful
he did enable them to continue but in the way that they continued
you may know that they when they were building the wall they had
two hands and in one hand they held a sword or weapon and the
other hand they worked so they were prepared for the enemy they
were prepared for the enemy and I think we can draw the analogy
today like this. We should always have with us,
about us, the Word of God, the Bible, which is the sword of
the Spirit. Because we have the great enemy
of our souls, the devil, who will always try and destroy that
which is being done in the name of the Lord. He's always endeavouring
to destroy that which God has spoken. He's always really desiring
to cast doubt upon the Word of God. That's his plan, always
was, to cast doubt upon the truth of God's Word. And therefore,
as you and I go forward in life, we need to have with us the Word
of God. We need to be able to resort
to the Word of God and we can plead from the Word of God, his
promises to our God in prayer. It's a blessed path, you know,
to plead the promises of God. We can come and say to him with
a humble confidence, Lord, thou hast said this and thou hast
said that. And I pray that that may come
to pass and that I may be blessed and that I may be encouraged
and that I may be strengthened and I may have the evidence that
God is with me. And he's leading me in the right
way. And I may have the wonderful
blessing of observing that God has done great things for me
and God is doing great things for me. And the Lord God has
redeemed me from all my sin. Lord, God has put a new song
in my mouth. Even praise unto my God. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? To have a good testimony and to have the evidence that
God is with us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Don't forget the great truth
of God's Word. Yes, if God is with us, enemies
will rise up without any doubt. The devil will see to that. But
you see, if you and I go in the strength of the Lord God, we
can be sure that he will support us. We can be sure He will strengthen
us. We can be sure He will never
leave us nor forsake us. Therefore we shall be able to
boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Well, Sam Ballat and Tobiah were
people that rose up and they tried to generate other people
to speak against Nehemiah and to frustrate that which God had
put into his heart to do. It was the work of God. Nehemiah
had been in Babylon for many years but the time would come,
the appointed time, the Lord would arise and put in his heart
a concern for his people and a desire to do that which would
once again bring back Jerusalem to a normal condition, a normal
state. And as of course we know that
occurred and also the temple was rebuilt and and Israel were
able to once again go back and worship in Jerusalem well the
mercy of God you see the mercy of God didn't cut Israel off
and my friends the mercy of God is He hasn't cut you and me off
perhaps we deserved it perhaps we do deserve it but a blessing
is to know that we haven't been cut off but we have a very gracious
God and so here we have this statement here that Nehemiah
comes. And you see, he doesn't pray
in an offhand way. He doesn't pray in a casual way. He's in the presence of God.
The holy, righteous presence of God. But he comes like this. Oh, Lord, I beseech thee. It was an earnest prayer. He
really wanted God. To hear his prayer and answer
his prayer. It wasn't as though, well, he
wasn't very fussed about it. It was just a traditional prayer.
Many people say traditional prayers with no real desire. The heart
doesn't go with a prayer, it's just words. But here was a man
praying to his God from his very heart. O Lord, I beseech thee,
let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant
and to the prayer of thy servants. and the people. He wanted God
to really hear his prayer. He wanted God to hear him and
to the prayer of our servants who desire to fear thy name. They wanted to fear God. They wanted to do God's will. It's a good thing, isn't it? You know, we read, don't we?
The fear of the Lord. is the beginning of wisdom. What a blessing it is when God
gives you and me a fear of God. And that fear is a desire to
do the will of God. That's what it really means.
The fear not to offend Almighty God, but to do the will of God. I wonder if you and I this morning
have that real desire May it be a God-given desire to do the
will of God. Because I believe if we pray
in that way, you know, one thing which will be very evident is
this. The Lord will direct us to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And there, you and I, by the
grace of God, will find rest for our souls. We live in a restless
world. But it's a blessing when we find
that rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the evidence then that we are amongst those, like Israel, who
are redeemed. It's a lovely word, isn't it?
Redeemed. It's a word I love to read and
to think about. Redeemed. I wonder if it's a
great word in your heart. You bless God for it and you
desire then to Fear the name of God and the Lord would prosper
you. Now if the Lord is prospering
us today in a spiritual way, it'll be to bless our souls,
to bring us nearer to the Saviour, to view the great wonder of redemption,
the great wonder of that sin atoning sacrifice of the Saviour
to take away all our sins. It'll be a great blessing then.
to walk in that way and to know that the Lord therefore is prospering
us spiritually we're often concerned aren't we about natural prosperity
nothing wrong in that but the great and important thing is
we should be more concerned about our spiritual prosperity to know
that our souls are prospering, that you know that by the grace
of God, we're laying up treasure in heaven, much more important
than laying up treasure on earth. Where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. And prosper, I pray thee. It was something he earnestly
needed God to do. And what a blessing for us today,
if we're given faith Living faith. Nehemiah had living faith. We
see the answer. We know what happened at the
time he didn't know. My friends, it may be that in
your life and my life. We are in a position now. We don't know the future. Bless
God if we are able to come with living faith to have our confidence
in God and to pray to Him in similar words As Nehemiah did,
O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the
prayer of thy servant.