I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Nehemiah chapter 6 and we'll read verse 16. Nehemiah chapter
6 and reading verse 16. And it came to pass that when
all our enemies heard thereof and all the heathen that were
about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their
own eyes, for they perceived that this work was wrought of
our God." It is encouraging for us tonight,
so many years after this occurs, to believe that We still come
and worship a God who does great things. The work was wrought
of our God. And we should perhaps remember
that the Lord was very gracious here to his people, principally
the tribe of Judah who had gone down into captivity because of
their sin. And so, so often we find the
Lord does not deal with us according to our sins. Isn't it a wonderful
blessing under wonderful mercy? If we look at ourselves, if we
look at our sins, perhaps we may think, well, can ever God
dwell here? There's no hope that God will
come to me. I'm really beyond hope. I've really gone just too far. I really disobeyed the Word of
God. Well, so did Israel, so did Judah
in their day and age. They listened to the prophets
preaching to them, no doubt, day by day, week by week, month
by month, year by year. and they had ignored the truth
of God. God never lies. What God says
comes to pass. You and I dare not ignore the
word of God. And so the Lord brought to pass
that which he had spoken by his prophets and Jerusalem was destroyed. Oh, what a time that was. What
a time to mourn over. That renowned city. That place
that God had so blessed. A place where David and Solomon
had reigned. The glory of God had been displayed
so wonderfully there. The tabernacle had been erected
that magnificent masterpiece. There the Lord had come down
in that cloud and what a wonderful time it was. Now perhaps we might
say, well, Israel had become familiar. Israel had just accepted
the situation which existed. And therefore they made the basic
assumption that things would continue as they always had done.
And they could do as they wished. The fact was, they were walking
contrary to the Lord. They were not keeping his laws,
they were not keeping his commands. And therefore the Lord sent his
prophets to speak those solemn words to them, warning them the
result of their sin and transgression. And as they continued to walking
their way, the Lord fulfilled that word that He had spoken.
And they were taken captive. They travelled many, many miles
from Jerusalem to Babylon. And there they resided for 70
years. What a time it was. What a time
it was. time of weeping, were told, they said, how can
we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land? They couldn't find it in themselves
to sing those songs that they'd been used to in those happy days
in Jerusalem. And now they were in captivity.
But the Lord was gracious. Did the Lord cut them off forever?
Did they deserve it? Yes, they did. Did he cut them
off forever? No, he didn't. We are thankful tonight to know
that we have a faithful God, a God who is compassionate, A
God who is kind, a God who is loving. Israel never deserved any mercy. And if we're honest in our own
lives, we don't deserve any mercy, do we? We need to be honest. We need the Lord to come and
to, as it were, open up our heart
to our understanding. And we see all manner of unclean
things there. We have to confess that we're
no better than our fathers. But we're thankful to know that
God's mercy is the same. That God is the same. He tells
us yesterday, today and forever. We have an unchanging God. And
it is because of that, as we read in Malachi, we are not consumed. If it was not for that, we would
be consumed. We wouldn't be here. Just think
about that. It's because the Lord changes
not. Because His mercy is near every
morning. Because great is His faithfulness. So we can come
tonight. with a hope that he will remember
us, each one of us, with that favour that he bears unto his
people. And he would indeed visit our
souls with his salvation. Now Israel had been favoured. The Lord once again had granted
them that they should return to Jerusalem, that place which
was Desolate. The walls were broken down. No
temple. What a state it was in. And you
may remember Nehemiah went round it on horseback one night with
a few servants. No one knew what he was doing
and he went round and looked at it and he saw what a desolation
there was. But God put it into his heart
to begin the rebuilding of this wall. Was it going to be easy? No,
it wasn't. And it may be the same in our
lives. There may be some rebuilding needed. And is it going to be easy? No,
it's not. But, God is with him. And friends, if God has put it
into our heart for that rebuilding, God will bless us and God will
strengthen us, as he did these Israelites. The enemy was trying
what he could to stop them building The devil today will do all he
can to stop you and me in the things of God. He will do all
he can. You can read the many temptations
that Nehemiah faced in this rebuilding. Not only in this chapter we read
here, but previously there were many temptations, every opportunity
to give up in actual fact. They had to rebuild with the
sword in one hand. Yes, and they had to watch and
make sure the enemy wasn't going to come and destroy them. They didn't take their clothes
off, night or day, apart from washing. So, there was an urgency. And the Lord was with them. The
Lord enabled them, therefore, to rebuild this wall now all
around Jerusalem. A substantial wall. They would
have had to have picked up all those stones which were scattered
about when it had been broken down. Remember, 70 years had
elapsed since that had occurred. No doubt many had been totally
misplaced and broken up and it wasn't just a question of picking
up bricks as it is today to build a wall, it was far more difficult
than that. But the Lord put it into their heart. So when the
temptations came and they tried to get Nehemiah to stop, they
made every excuse. They asked him to come down and
have a conference in another village. On the face of it, it seemed
quite reasonable. But he said this, he said, I
am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should
the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you? Again,
let us realise that the devil today, he wants God's work to
stop. My friends, may you and I be
blessed in this work, and may we seek for the rebuilding perhaps
of it in our own hearts. So Lord has put it into our hearts
to commence, as it were, this rebuilding. And it may be, once
again, reading the Word of God. It may not be easy, and it won't
be easy. The devil will try to stop you. He'll say, well, hold
on a minute, you've just got this to do. Just carry on and
do that. Oh, my friends, to be able to
say to the devil, hold on, I'm doing a great work. I'm not going
to stop reading the Bible. I'm not going to stop doing this.
I'm not going to allow other things to come in and separate
between me and God. You're doing a great work. Oh, bless God then, if he gives
us that grace to resist the devil, powerful as he is and he hasn't
lost any of his skill, you know, he'll try every avenue in your
life and my life. He wants to destroy our faith. And remember here, this man,
Sanballat, he didn't give up quickly, did he? Five times he
pursued this way, trying to get near Maya to stop. Therefore,
if you and I attempted and we, by God's grace, have overcome
once, we may think, well, thanks that I was able to overcome,
don't think the battle's over. The battle may be at the beginning.
There may be a lot of war yet. So the devil doesn't give up
easily. In fact, he never gives up. So we have the words of Nehemiah's
records, what was written and what they said. They reported
that this man, Gashemut, said that thou and the Jews think
to rebel. etc. And he asked them, well,
come now therefore, let us take counsel together. What did Nehemiah
respond? There are no such things done
as thou sayest, but thou faintest them out of thine own heart,
for they all made us afraid, saying their hand should be weakened
from the work that is, that it be not done. Now, therefore,
O God, strengthen my hands." Nehemiah knew the secret, and
the secret was not in himself. He wasn't a strong man by himself.
He knew where his strength lay. It was in his God. And so he
says, Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. Well, what a blessing, if you
and I are blessed like that. But you see, the devil didn't
give up. He went into the house of Shemaiah
and they tried to get him to go into the temple, because they
said they might attack him. And he said, shall such a man
as I flee? Oh, my friends, what grace there
was and what strength there was, because he perceived that God
had not sent him. Again, it's good if God gives
us grace to perceive when something is not from God. We perceive that God did not
send him. It was of the devil, and he'd
been hired that they might reproach him. My God, think now upon the
Bidenson Ballot. According to these, their works.
So, the war was finished. And we think of a time scale.
52 days were spent building this wall. It's a pretty short time,
isn't it? 52 days and the war was complete. And what was the effect? Well,
bless God, it's a wonderful effect. It was an effect that brought
honour and glory to God. We read here in this 16th verse,
and it came to pass. It's good, isn't it, to know
that God's purposes come to pass. They don't fail. It came to pass
that when all our enemies heard thereof, And all the heathen
that were about us saw these things. They were much cast down
in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was wrought of
our God." Oh, my friends, God got honour and glory to His great
name, didn't He? He'd helped these people, their
strength was in the Lord. He enabled them to continue. And now the enemy, the heathen,
have perceived that this work was wrought of our God. But it's
wonderful, isn't it, to see God's work appearing. We love to see
God's work appearing. I hope we all love to see God's
work appearing. But it's more wonderful when
the heathen observe it's God's work. Because it's that which
they could not do themselves. You remember when Israel came
out of Egypt and it hadn't been long before
they came to the Red Sea and that was a big obstacle. And
the Lord appeared for them and they were able to pass through
the Red Sea. And then the Egyptians tried
to follow. Yes, it came to pass that in
the morning watch the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire and of the cloud and troubled the
host of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels that
they drove them heavily so that the Egyptians said, now this
is what they said, let us flee from the face of Israel for the
Lord fighted for them against the Egyptians. Perhaps it may be true, those
glorious words, the Lord shall fight for you, and you shall
hold your peace. And the Lord fights, my friends,
the battle is secure, and the battle is sure, and the devil
will not be overcome. Yes, it's seen clearly for the
Egyptians here, they could soon catch Israel again. There was
the dry land in the midst of the Red Sea. The Lord allowed
them all to go in. and then he brought the waters
upon them so that everyone was drowned and Israel saw that great
work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people
feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses
there's no greater benefit to our faith than to observe the
work of our God When we see the work of our God being performed,
what a strength it is to us. And what an amazing thing it
is when we see the heathen observing the work of the Lord, and acknowledging
it, and recognizing it is from the Lord God. Well, there are many examples
in the Word of God which we could look at, but just one or two.
the case of Gideon. You remember Gideon. Gideon lived
in difficult times. It wasn't easy. The Midianites
were fighting them and putting them to flight and they were
fearful as to the situation and the Lord raised up Gideon. Now Gideon wasn't under any misapprehension. of who he was. He said he was
the least in his father's house. He wasn't great in his own eyes. And the Lord uses someone. He
uses them for his honour and glory. And therefore he raised
up this man, Gideon. What a blessed deliverance the
Israelites had over the Midianites. And how all the honour and glory
went to God. There was no alternative. But
how it was that Gideon was encouraged. There he'd been, he had his army
reduced and reduced. Just 300. without any swords. Well, they
had a sword in their hand, but they didn't have to fight. They
had a pitcher, and they had a lamp inside the pitcher, which they
then broke, and they called out the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon. But, how was Gideon encouraged? He was told to go down to the
camp. He took his servant. He went down. When Gideon was
come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow,
and said, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread
tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote
it that it fell, and overturned it, the tent lay long. And his
fellow answerers said, This is nothing else, say the sword of
Gideon, the son of Joash. a man of Israel, for into his
hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host." Midianite
saying that. The Lord had revealed it to him
and he was repeating it so that Gideon would be encouraged and
Gideon would be blessed. And so it was when Gideon heard
the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof that
he worshipped." I'm sure that would be the response. When the
Lord appears, the Lord does great things, and as we read here,
for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God,
there was no doubt that Nehemiah was able to bow down and to worship
The Lord had appeared for them, and the Lord had wonderfully
blessed them. You know, remember, I spent that
account of Jonah. Well, Jonah had disobeyed his
God, hadn't he? He had walked contrary to the
Lord. How sad, how solemn, and yet
how easy it is for us to do the same thing. The Lord instructs us to do something
and it may be difficult. It may not be to our liking and
we turn away from it. Just like Jonah did. We may think
we get away with it. Jonah thought, no doubt, he got
away with it. Yes, his conscience was hardened,
he found a ship Got in it and went to sleep. Difficult to believe,
isn't it? Disobeying God. And yet, gone
to sleep. Well, he may have gone to sleep. But the Lord knew what he would
do. And we know what occurred. The Lord sent a great storm.
The men came and woke him up. They asked him what the reason
was. Jonah knew. The Lord had convicted him. Jonah
knew. And he said, take me up and cast
me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto
you. For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
The result was they did take him up. They did throw him into
the sea. The sea was calm. then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly. This is the result. God brought
glory to his name through these things. These examples that we've
just briefly mentioned. The Lord brings glory to his
name through these things. And the men feared the Lord exceedingly
and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. For they perceived that this
work was wrought of our God. Well, we have many cases in the
Word of God that you can look at and go through. Let's mention
a few. But then, of course, there is
those times of spiritual blessings which make a difference. And there is that perception
that the work is of God. We may perhaps think firstly
of the Apostle Paul in his life. The Lord wonderfully came, didn't
he? And dressed him when he was on
that Damascus road, full of his own importance, going down to
commit men and women to prison because of their faith in Christ.
but the appointed time had come in his life not to propose but
to call by grace. What was the effect? The effect
on Paul was a dramatic change, a wonderful change, an immediate
change. And what did he do? He went and
preached Christ. And the people were amazed. They
couldn't understand it. Is this not the man that has
spoken against the Lord Jesus Christ? And here he is preaching
Christ? Oh, you see the effect of God's
work. They perceived that this work
was wrought of our God. Those people perceived there
was an amazing change in the Apostle Paul. Well, blessed be
God. The Lord still works today and
he causes changes in people's lives. Changes in people's lives. And it is to be observed. It
is observed. When changes occur, it is observed. I'll be the first people to observe
it of the Church of God. My friends, the Church of God
are healthy and lively. They're on the lookout for spiritual
change in the lives of people. They're on the lookout for it. And they delight to see it. And they can bless God for it. Don't be surprised then, if people
observe your life and the change in your life perhaps, sometimes
people try and keep it very quiet. You cannot keep those things
quiet. The Lord's work appears. But also what a blessing it is
when the effect of God's work is evident to the heathen. And they see a change. I see
a marked change. I see the effect of it. They
may not understand it, but they realise it is a work of almighty
God. What a blessing then to have
such a God who is so gracious to us, who blesses us in this
way. You know, you remember in the
New Testament that lovely account of Zacchaeus. It's a very short
but very important and a very blessed account. And we know
that Zacchaeus desired the Lord to come and to abide in his house. And the Lord came and he spoke
to him and he said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for
today I must abide at thy house." It's a wonderful statement, wasn't
it? You think of that. Zacchaeus
was seeking to see Jesus. Hugh and I are seeking to see
Jesus. Yes, he didn't mind being seen. He was an eminent person. a chief
tax collector, and yet he hopped up into a tree to see Jesus. But Jesus knew where he was.
Jesus knows where we are. He came and said, oh, make haste
and come down for the day I must abide at thy house. That would
be good news for you, wouldn't it? If you were seeking the Lord,
He wanted to see his face. And he looked up where you were,
where it came to you where you are, and he said words like this. What was the effect on Zacchaeus?
Word, he made haste and came down and received the Lord joyfully. When if we're seeking Jesus and
the Lord says make haste and come down, I'm sure we would
receive him joyfully. and make haste, but what was
their fact? It was evident, wasn't it? There
was this man, Jesus, going to this sinful man's house. What
did the people say when they saw it? They all murmured, saying
that he was gone to be a guest, but the man is a sinner. Well,
it's a blessing, isn't it? If Jesus comes to be a guest
with us, He comes to abide with us. We're a sinner. We don't deserve it. And yet
the Lord came and said, this day I must abide at thy house. What a blessing if God comes
and speaks to us in that way and says perhaps like that, this
day, this day, not tomorrow, but this
day. Blessing it is to have a God
who speaks like that. He knows where we are. He knows
where you are today. He knows whether you're on the
lookout for Jesus. Oh, I hope we are. I hope we're
really on the lookout for Jesus. He wanted to come to us and to
speak to us. The Lord Jesus When he was on
the earth, he did very many wonderful things. There was one occasion
when they behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy,
lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their face,
said unto him, the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Wonderful statement, wasn't it?
what came to him in that way, simply spoken, glorious words,
words of power. Behold, certainly the scribes
said within themselves, this man blasphemeth. Jesus, knowing
their thoughts, said, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For where it is easy to say,
Thy sins be forgiven, they ought to say, Arise and walk. But that ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he
to the sick of the poor as he, Arise, take up thy bed, and go
unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to
his house." Now what was the effect? The multitude saw this. The multitude saw it. They marveled. And glorified God which had given
such power unto men. The power of God was revealed,
the multitude saw it, for they perceived that this work was
wrought of our God. Oh, what a blessing it is to
observe these things and to realise the wonderful power that comes
through the Holy Spirit to convict and convince and then to grant
liberty and blessing, freedom to the captives. Remember the
Acts of the Apostles, wonderful accounts there are in that of
the Lord's appearing and the Lord's favour and the Lord's
blessing. There was an occasion in the
fourth chapter, when Peter, who was filled with the Holy Ghost,
said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent
man, by what means he be made whole, be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at naught by you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." Now that was great truth, wasn't it? Wonderful, wasn't
it? And reading these words, for they perceived that this
work was wrought of our God. What was the result? Now, when
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that
they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled, and they
took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Oh, we see the effect, don't
we? What a wonderful result it was. Here then, in these New Testament
days, when the apostles were called to go into all the world
to preach the Gospel, and they were fearless in what they did.
Their great concern was to preach Christ and Him crucified. And here we have the wonderful
effect of it. that all these people were able
to acknowledge that it came from the Lord and they took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus. Well, we have this evidence
here in this word, for they perceived that this work was wrought of
our God. Well, in our lives. My friends,
may we have the evidence of God's work in our hearts. No matter how Many difficulties
and problems and trials have been, yet to know, the faithfulness
of our God who enables us to press on in the work, to press
on in that which he has placed us in, how difficult it may be,
and then to be able to hear God's gracious blessing that we hear
the words of people perhaps saying they perceive that this work
was wrought of our God. My friends, the work of Christ,
the work of the Holy Spirit, revealing Christ to our souls,
oh what a wonderful blessing that is, and how glorious it
will be if there is that result, that people realise that this
work is wrought of our God. There's nothing that you and
I can do of ourselves. But we're thankful the Lord does
it. So that he receives all the glory. And we are the recipients
of his great grace. Oh, my friends, there is glory
in the grace of God. We never deserved it. We never
have and we never will deserve the grace of God. but my friends
if we have received it that grace will never be taken away it is
an eternal blessing and we shall rejoice in it and we shall thank
God for it and maybe look forward then to that time when we shall
be able to come and fully praise and glorify our great saviour
for all that he's done in shedding His blood, giving His life, so
that we might possess life, and that eternal life. May we praise
God today and be able to thank God for these words, for they
perceived that this work was wrought of our God, and every
spiritual work is wrought of our God, for His honour and glory. Amen.