May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Nehemiah, chapter four, and we'll read verse nine. The book
of Nehemiah, chapter four and verse nine. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because
of them. Nehemiah, as we are aware of,
was a man of God. And he was called by God to return
from Babylon. He sought permission from the
king The king had given him permission to return and to once again rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem which had been broken down and had
really been derelict for some 70 years. And it's an encouraging
account that we're able to read in this book. And after he had
come back, he went out at night to see the true situation. which
existed. And having seen that, he came
and he spoke to the people, the nobles, the rulers, and said,
unto them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem
lieth waste. The gates thereof are burned
with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that
we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand
of my God which was upon me, as also the king's words that
he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up
and build. So they strengthened their hands
for this good work." And of course there was enmity from the enemies
of God. And we're told when Samballot,
the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Amorite, and Geshem
the Arabian heard it, they laughed as a scorn and despised us and
said, what is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against
the king? Then answered I them and said
unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us. Therefore,
we servants will arise and build But ye have no portion, nor rite
nor memorial in Jerusalem." Well, the Lord was with Nehemiah, the
Lord was with the people of Judah, and the Lord strengthened them,
and that they might be able to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. But of course, there was opposition. Because the enemies of God did
not want that to occur. They wanted Jerusalem to continue
to lie waste. They wanted it to remain in that
condition so that there was no true worship of God. And when
there was any evidence that the building was to be resumed and
once again then the temple would be restored, they hated the very
thought of it. and therefore they did all they
could to stop this occurring. And as we very clearly are able
to observe this in this physical way, yet surely how true it is
in a spiritual way, how true it is today, the devil does not
want the Church of God to be built up. He does not want the
walls of Jerusalem to be raised up again. He does not want the
work to prosper. And therefore he will do everything
he can to stop the prosperity of the things of God and the
building up again and the restoring of the true worship. We see today,
indeed as it was in those days, a lack of true worship and just
a mere formality. As we think of that and we see
the opposition today, we should not be discouraged. We may be
discouraged, but we should therefore be encouraged to remember the
account of Nehemiah. He tells us, as you pray to God,
Hear, O our God, for we are despised. And turn their reproach upon
their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity. See the servant of God near Myer,
he knew where his strength lay. He knew how God had appeared
for him. You remember when he was in the King's presence and
when he heard the news of Jerusalem, he was mournful and the King
asked him what his request was. And what did he do? He prayed
to the God of heaven, very clearly. In Nehemiah's life, prayer was
a priority. Prayer was, we might say, the
life of his soul. And clearly, every time of need,
he prayed to his God, and his God heard him, and his God answered. And so we have in this verse
before us this morning, Notwithstanding the difficulties, he says, nevertheless,
we made our prayer to God. And it was against the background
of this situation that Samballah and Tobiah and the Arabians and
the Ammonites and the Oshdodites heard that the wars of Jerusalem
were made up. The breaches began to be stopped. They were very
wroth. and conspired all of them together to come and to fight
against Jerusalem and to hinder it. So the enemy was there doing
all it could to stop and to hinder the building of the wall of Jerusalem. And we should recognize today
that we are in a battle like Israel of old was. We are in
a spiritual battle. They were in a spiritual battle
and, of course, a physical battle. And the great concern was then
for Nehemiah that he came to his God and he said, and we're
told, nevertheless. There's all the opposition. Seems
very, very difficult to actually get stuck into this building
of the wall again. But he says, nevertheless, we
made our prayer unto our God. Well, how necessary that was
and how necessary is today. What a blessing is that we come
today before that same God, that great God. We perhaps inadvertently
limit our God. We tend to think, well, The Lord
will never again send any prosperity. The Lord will never again grant
there may be a building up in the things of God. And therefore,
we tend to give up. We tend not to pray. And therefore,
we are really listening to the insinuations of the devil. And
we feel, well, the battle's too great. There's no point in pursuing
it and we may as well give up and just continue to jog along.
But my friends, that's the attitude of many today. And therefore,
the Church of God is in a low state and is a state of decline
because there is no real belief that we have a great God. a great
God who can still do great things. And let us remember here, what
happened? Did Nehemiah, did Judah just
go back and say, well, if God's going to bless, he will bless,
so I can just sit down and wait for that to occur? No, not at
all. They prayed. They sought the Lord in earnestness
and desire and They were active in this work. They knew there
was the enemy all around, but they prepared themselves to fight
the enemy. And it's good to recognise the
things that they did in order to give them that strength to
fight the enemy should the enemy come upon them. Well, we know
that in fact, The enemy did not come upon them. They prepared
themselves for the battle. They didn't need a fight. The
Lord was with them. The Lord subdued the enemy. And
so we should recognise that today and to pray earnestly that the
Lord would indeed once again grant the blessing that the Church
of God might be built up might be strengthened. Now, this wall
that needed to be rebuilt, well it wasn't an easy occupation.
Think of it, the wall had been broken down for 70 years, there
had been a lot of rubbish thrown amongst the stones. No doubt,
many weeds had grown, perhaps many trees had grown amongst
all that war that had been broken down over all those years. So
therefore to begin to rebuild was not an easy task anyway. And so they needed living faith,
living faith to believe that God was with them. living faith
to believe that God would help them and God would restore them
once again to a time of blessing and a time of favour. So faced
with this situation, how encouraging it is to read, nevertheless,
although the opposition seemed great, nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God. it's good for us today to realise
that there is perhaps in our day and nevertheless that we
may come and make our prayer unto our God. Believing that we have a God
who does hear and a God who does answer prayer and let us remember
the purpose of this was to secure Jerusalem, to enable the Temple
to be rebuilt, and more importantly, to restore the blessing and favour
of worship, and to be able to, once again, to sacrifice in the
holy place, and to come and to worship the Lord God and therefore
in that situation what would occur God's name would be lifted
up and honored and glorified and their thoughts and their
minds would be attracted and directed once again to the great
truth without shedding of blood there is no remission to realize
there was no forgiveness without shedding of blood and to realise
therefore the wonderful picture that developed in their minds
of the true Messiah, who they were looking forward to, who
would come, and as we know did come, the great and glorious
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore, the building of
these walls was to a good end. It wasn't just to secure them
naturally, it was to secure them so they might be able to build
again the temple and then to worship the true God. And in
that worship then, they would be blessed and his name would
be lifted up and honored and glorified. So nevertheless, they were no doubt discouraged,
but nevertheless, they did not give up. Nevertheless, they believed
in the true God. Nevertheless, they believed,
as they prayed to God, their God would hear. It wasn't a false
prayer. It wasn't a prayer without any
watching and waiting. It was a prayer to Almighty God,
which emanated from their hearts. A prayer instigated and instilled
by the blessed and holy Spirit of God. And so, nevertheless,
we made our prayer unto our God, because there was all that conspiring
against them, as there is today. The devil is very active today. He was very active then. He always
has been active. And as long as the people are
satisfied with just jogging along, then he's perfectly happy. But you see, when there's any
returning, when there's any desire to once again build up the walls
of Jerusalem, then you see, he then becomes very active. And
he does all he can to destroy such a desire, to destroy any
action. So we should be aware today that
as there may be that desire, for the building up of the church,
the building up of the church of God, the people of God. And
there will be that need for us to remember such words, nevertheless. We made a communal prayer. He didn't say, well, I made,
he said, we made. The people of God, they made,
they joined together. We made our prayer. unto our God." As they did that,
as I alluded to earlier, they did not just sit down and say,
well, we've done what we can. No, they were very active. And
they set a watch against them day and night because of them. 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
they were watching to make sure the enemy wasn't able to come
and to cause them to stop the work that they were involved
in. It was a continual watch. A continual
watch. What a good example that is,
isn't it? For us today. Perhaps we pray. Do we watch for answers? Often we forget, don't we? We
don't watch. Here was the example. They prayed
and they set a watch against them day and night because of
the enemy. Now, they had great opposition,
didn't they? But you see, Nehemiah, he produced a plan. how they
may be able to do that. And it was a plan that was worked
to, but it wasn't an easy plan to fulfill. Because on the face
of it, we would think, well, this makes it very difficult
to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem because of all the things that
they had to be doing. And we read together what it
involved. It involved that they had to
have this watch day and night, and they had to equip themselves
so that they were ready in case the enemy should come upon them. And so he tells us, it came to
pass from that time forth, you see they prayed, and now they
were carrying out the action necessary. It came to pass from
that time forth that the half of my servants wrought in the
work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields,
and the bows, and the aubergines, and the rulers were behind all
the house of Judah." We could perhaps think of a similar picture
today when we think of this. There are those who are involved
physically in the work. There are those who are behind
them, praying, praying that the sword of the Spirit may indeed
be with them and help and strengthen them. What an encouraging thought it
is to know then they were all involved in one way or another. Everyone was involved. in this
great work. My friend, it's good when the
whole Church of God is involved in the work of God. None are
excluded. So here there were those that
came, those that built it, and those that were behind them. And it came to pass. They which
buildeth on the wall, and they that bear the burdens, were those
that laid it with one of his hands wrought in the work, and
with the other hand he held a weapon." So we might think, well, this
wasn't very satisfactory. Surely they needed to have both
hands free to be able to do that which was so necessary. Well,
no. The Word of God tells us here that that which was adopted
was they built with one hand, And on the other hand, they held
a weapon. Well, we can think of that today,
can't we, in these terms? We have the Word of God. What
a weapon that is. And we may be involved in the
work of God, but we are not to forget the Word of God. We're not to forget the reading
of the Word of God. we are not to forget praying
to God. And we might be tempted sometimes
to think, well, I'm just too busy, I'm just too involved in
this work, I really haven't got time to set any time aside and
to read the Word of God. Well, here are these people you
see, they worked with the one hand and the other hand they
held a weapon. Remember here we have a physical
picture and we're speaking then of a spiritual picture. And how
blessed it is if we are able to do that, to work on the one
hand and on the other hand to have the Word of God there to
read and to encourage us and that which is a great strength
and support to us. And so, with the other hand,
they held a weapon. For the builders, every one had
his sword girded by his side, and so builded, and he that sounded
the trumpet was by me." And so they were very prepared for battle,
weren't they? They were very prepared. Now
they were dependent upon God to help them, to strengthen them.
They were also prepared for the battle themselves. And it's good, you know, to realize
that the Lord has ordained this pattern generally in the Word
of God. You only have to trace out the
lives of Israel and how many times they had to go out to battle. There were those times, of course,
rare times when we're told they had no need to fight. in that
battle. On those rare occasions, the
Lord wonderfully appeared and destroyed the enemy without Israel
having to fight. Well, in one sense, Israel, of
course, defeated the enemy here without having to fight. The
Lord gave them strength. The Lord gave near my wisdom. But they had to be ready should
such a battle be necessary. And so he said, I said unto the
nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, the
work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall,
one from another. In what place, therefore, you
hear the sound of the trumpet? Resort ye hither unto us. Our God shall fight for us. You see, it's very clear. The
Lord will fight for them. But nonetheless, they were to
get themselves ready for the battle if that was necessary. So we labored in the work. Half of them held the spears
from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. Likewise,
at the same time, said I unto the people, let every one with
his servant, lodged within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be
a guard to us and labour on the day." They were to be found within
Jerusalem. We might say the relevance today
is to be found within the Church of God, not to be found outside,
to be found within the Church of God. Well, what a blessing
that is. us today to think of that, that
we are found within the Church of God. We're not outside. We're
not just onlookers. We're in the Church of God, within
the Church of God. And I suppose that really means
to us today to have put on an open profession of the name of
God, to have followed Him, to have passed through the ordinance
of baptism, to be a partaker of the Lord's Supper, to be within
the Church, to be within Jerusalem, that everyone with his servant
lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be guards
to us and labour on the day. Well, the picture is very beautiful,
isn't it, as we have this account of Nehemiah and we know that
Therefore they worked day by day, willingly. They laboured
on. They had a will to work. Everyone unto his work. Well, my friends, today we're
occupied in a battle, aren't we? It's a great battle. And the devil is a great adversary. The devil uses people on that
occasion to be their adversary. The devil uses people and situations
today to be an adversary. He brings things into our lives. He brings things into our minds
which distract us and turn us away from the true things of
God. We're told, aren't we, to resist
the devil. And often, you know, we speak
of that statement, to resist the devil, and yet perhaps we
don't follow the whole of the statement that is made indeed
in the Word of God. And we read that in the epistle
of James. And James tells us to resist
the devil. What does he tell us before?
This is very relevant. Submit yourselves, therefore,
to God. Submit yourselves, therefore,
to God. And you see, if then, by the
grace of God, we've been able to do that, then resist the devil. But if we're not submitting ourselves
to God, how are we? to be able to resist the devil. And it's a great blessing. And
these people, in Nehemiah's day, the people of Judah, they submitted
themselves willingly to that which God commanded them through
the words of Nehemiah. There was that submission to
do that, to organize themselves in a right way. And so this is
a great truth. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil. What's the
result? And he will flee from you. I believe there are those occasions
when we're reminded to resist the devil and perhaps we endeavor
to do that and we find in actual fact he's still there. And he's
very strong and powerful. And he hasn't flown from us. Perhaps we need to be reminded
of such a word as this. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. James is very powerful in the
words that he brings to us. He says, do you think that the
scripture said in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to
envy, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he said, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Perhaps we're still
too proud. We are proud by nature. We're
very proud by nature. And so this statement is true,
God resisted the proud. It may be that we have not submitted
ourselves therefore to God. But we've still been proud and
by that it really indicates to us that we've been following
our own inclinations. Following our own plan. Following
that which we might think would be acceptable to God. My friends,
God has his plan. Perhaps you know what God's plan
is. Perhaps you're reluctant to follow
the plan. Well, remember here, he giveth
more grace. He giveth more grace. What a
blessing that is. Therefore God resisteth the proud,
but he giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore
to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now you
see, in that position, what has James gone to say? Draw near
to God. Draw near to God. See, this is
the preparation. This is a preparation. God has
granted a preparation so that now, you see, we're in a fit
and right state to draw nigh to God. Then, we're told, and
he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. how easy it is for us to become
double-minded, to have two minds, one which perhaps thinks they
should submit to God, and the other which thinks we should
submit to ourselves. Well, we have these gracious
words in the Epistle to James, and may we be found following
them, following those Words indeed which are so true. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
unto God. Here was the prayer unto God. Here was, you might say, the
condition of true prevailing prayer. Unto God, and set a watch
against them day and night, because of them. Well, we need to set
a watch, don't we? We need to set a watch and to
follow the directions and the blessing that Almighty God sets
before us. The psalmist reminds us of the
truth of these things. And he says, the Lord tells us,
and call upon me in a day of trouble. In this day when we're
watching, we are to call upon Me. Judah, call upon God. Call upon Me. Remember, it's
in a right way. It's desiring the honour and
glory of God. It's to be submissive to His
will and to come humbly. And in that condition, here we
have this statement then, and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me. Again and again we come back,
don't we, to the need to realise that God's name is to be honoured
and glorified. You know, in the end, when this
was accomplished, When the walls are built, what do the people
do? They gather for worship and they praise the Lord for his
deliverance. There must always be that outcome
when God comes and delivers us and God hears our prayers. What
a wonderful and blessed word it is. And it's true, caught
upon me in the day of trouble, whatever that may be. In your
spiritual life and in your natural life, I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify me. You see, the truth is that God's
Word is true. But we need, don't we, to take
all of God's Word, not to just select little pieces and look
at that. It's the whole of God's Word.
It's the whole of His gracious preparation in our hearts to
come in a right way to our God. Nehemiah had come in a right
way, hadn't he? Yes, he confessed the sins of
the people. You and I need to come and confess
our sins. There are many. And to look to
the Saviour for forgiveness. Look to the Saviour that he will
be gracious to us and he will not deal with us as our sins
deserve and that he will bring again a deliverance and he will
help in that rebuilding of the wall and we are to be found watching. These people were watching, weren't
they, for the attacks of the devil, the attacks of the enemy. We pray, are we watching? Are we alert? Are we armed? when the devil comes and tries
to distract us and turn us away from the way of God, from the
truth of God. Peter, in his epistle, he also
gives us words of advice with regard to the devil. He tells
us this. Again, it's important to realise
how needful it is to be humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. And then
be sober, be vigilant, be watching, because your adversary, the devil,
as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom
resists steadfast in the faith." Faith in Christ. Steadfast in the faith. Knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Well, we recognise, do we not,
the need for such words to be applied to our heart. Because my friends, in this battle
we're involved in today, to be found carefully watching, praying,
seeking for God's deliverance, but my friends, coming then also
in that right way, in that way which is again for the honour
and for the glory of God. We're considering in our Bible
studies the whole armour of God and how needful it is. And the
Apostle, when he directs us for the need to take the whole armour
of God, he says this in the 18th verse, praying always Thessalonians,
he tells us to pray without ceasing, praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with
all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Christian life
is one of perseverance. Yes, my friends, it's never an
easy battle. We're always to be ready to fight
the battle. We are always to be ready to
be found looking unto Jesus, that one who is the author and
the finisher of our faith. How important it is and how needful
it is that we are a true follower of the words of God, the true
example that Lord Jesus Christ gives us in his word. Yes, we're
blessed with so many words of encouragement, so many words
of direction, and I know that the Holy Spirit may indeed come
and bless us with that real desire. The Lord Jesus spoke, 26th of
Matthew, and the 41st verse he tells us, watch and pray that
ye enter not into temptation. Many temptations aren't there.
But you see, if we're watching, and if we're praying, we won't
be tempted in the same way. Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. My friends, our flesh is always
weak. And we need God to come and to help us. go in the strength
of the Lord God. Yes, we mention of His righteousness,
even of His only. Not to rely on our own strength,
not to rely on our own weapons, our carnal weapons, but to rely
upon God. He will give us those spiritual
weapons. He will strengthen us with the
Word of God. It may be in our hands, that
as the devil comes in like a flood, remember how the Lord resisted
the devil when he came to him after he was baptised. How did
the Lord resist the devil? He quoted the Word of God. He
quoted the Word of God. My friends, don't answer the
devil on his ground. Answer the devil on God's ground,
which is the Word of God. One of my friends this morning
may be encouraged by the words of Nehemiah, and to be thankful
that we today have the same God to go to in prayer and to watch,
but may we be able to trace out the examples in the Word of God,
how that is to be accomplished, and how we need grace, but he
giveth more grace. when we come to Him seeking for
that grace, for seeking for that strength, for that confidence
that we may prevail. And once again, through His wonderful
favour, the walls of Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The wall will
be finished. It was done in troublous times. It wasn't easy, but it was fulfilled. Nevertheless, We made our prayer
unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because
of them. Amen.