You may be seated. I would like to bring another
message to you from the book of Nehemiah. If you want to turn
to Nehemiah, this time chapter two, page 666 in Cambridge Bible. As long as the Lord sends messages,
by His grace I'll continue to deliver them. I'm still not,
I still don't know if we're gonna go through this book. But here's
what I wanna say about it if we do. Two things, let me say two things.
Number one, if we go through this, I want us to understand
what it's saying. You know how you have books and
maybe even, you know, chapters in books, but you just really
don't know what the book's about. If the Lord would have us to
go through this, I want us to understand what the book of Nehemiah
is about. And the reason I say that is
because there are a lot of genealogy type verses in this particular
book. They're not genealogy, you know,
so-and-so begets so-and-so and so-and-so begets so-and-so. They're not really genealogy
verses, but they're very much like that. You'll see what I
mean here in a minute. There are a lot of names of these
men. And these particular men and
these particular names get repeated a lot. All right. These men were working and he
keeps talking about them. And if the Lord, when you have
something like this, if the Lord does not reveal to us the message
of the book, we're just going to get bogged down. And I don't
want to do that. So tonight, and if we continue
through this, I want us to focus on the big picture of what it's
saying. That's the first thing that I
wanna tell you. I wanna focus on the big picture of what's
happening here so we can understand what the book is about. And the
second thing I wanna tell you is, the Lord said, search the
scriptures These words and these verses
are they that testify of me. We just read in our scripture
reading, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So the second thing I want to
tell you is if we don't see Christ in this, we've missed it. We've
missed it. We can see the importance of
praying for brethren in this. If you remember last Wednesday
night, Nehemiah heard about the condition of his brethren and
he, he, cried out to God. He was pleading
on behalf and praying for brethren. And that's wonderful. Brethren, pray for us. God forbid
that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.
That's important. And we can see the importance
of serving the Lord, the work of the ministry. They're about
to say, you know what? Let's go to work. Let's put our
hand to the work of the ministry and do it. And that's a wonderful
thing. All that's good. But if we don't see Christ in
this, we have missed the reason this was written. Every word in this entire book,
cover to cover, is here for the purpose of pointing us to Christ. Every word. So I want us to focus
on the big picture of this story so that we can clearly enter
into the fine details of Christ in it. Now, last week in chapter
one, we saw Nehemiah as a picture of Christ. That's who he was
in our message, a picture of Christ. He was in the palace
of the king. It's where the story began with
him in the palace of the king. And he heard of the desolation
of his people. And in hearing that, he prayed
great intercession to God, and he pled the covenant of mercy. After hearing their condition,
he pled the covenant of mercy. And he begged for their redemption
by joining himself and uniting himself with their condition. He cried to God, it's us. He kept saying, we. He united
Himself with them, I and them, that's what He said. And He ended
His prayer in chapter 1, verse 11. If you look at chapter 1,
verse 11, He ended His prayer by saying, 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."
The picture there being Christ saying to his father, I'm gonna
go down to them where they are, and I'm gonna redeem them, and
I'm gonna rebuild them. He said, prosper, I pray thee,
thy servant this day. And in that we can see the words
of our savior as he left glory to enter the womb of a virgin
to come into this world. Can't we see him setting out
on the work to be done? in that we can also hear the
words of our Savior praying in the Garden of Gethsemane as He
was headed to the cross. In both cases, we can hear Him
say, Father, I am going to accomplish the work that You've given Me
to do. I'm going to go do it. Prosper Thy servant this day.
And I love how chapter 2 begins by saying, And it came to pass,
Everything that Christ set out to accomplish came to pass. It
always does. He is the successful Savior,
and we're so thankful for that. Every time I hear that phrase,
I am so thankful He is the successful Savior, the one who set out to
save, and He did it. Now, let's look at chapter two,
and let's see the story of what's happening. and let's see the
picture of Christ as we go through it. All right, again, Nehemiah
has heard of the desolation of Jerusalem. He's heard of the
affliction of the children of Israel. Chapter 2, verse 1 says,
and it came to pass in the month 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." The last line of chapter one tells us
that Nehemiah was the king's cup bearer. And he was the one who bore the
fruit of, he bore the remnants of the wine press. He bore what came from the wine
press. It was delivered to him and he
was the one who delivered it up. So to keep a constant eye
on Christ as we go through this, that wine represents his blood.
That's what wine represents, his blood. The scripture says,
he is the one who bore the wine press of God's wrath alone and
delivered the results of that wine press to God alone. And what a picture it is that
Nehemiah did this in the month, Nisan, bearing this wine press. That is the first month of the
Jewish calendar. And the month means their flight,
their deliverance. You shall know the truth and
the truth will make you free. And do you know when that first
month of the calendar was given to the children of Israel? Turn
with me over to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12, look at verse
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto
you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, A male of the first year, you shall
take it out from the sheep or from the goats." And who is this?
This is Christ. John the Baptist said, behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Verse
six says, you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same
month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening. and they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side post and on the upper door post
of the house wherein they shall eat it and they shall eat the
flesh and that night roast with fire and unleavened bread and
with bitter herbs shall they eat it eat not of it raw nor
sodden at all with water but roast with fire his head with
his legs and with the pertinence thereof and you shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning and that which remaineth of it
until the morning you shall burn with fire and thus shall you
eat it with your loins girded your shoes on your feet and your
staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste it is the lord's
passover for i will pass through the land of egypt this night
and will smite all the firstborn in the land of egypt both man
and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute
judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt." He said, this is your flight. This is your deliverance
because of the blood. All because of the blood. So
go back to the story, Nehemiah 2. Verse 1 says, And it came to
pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth 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 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 forever. Why should
not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's
sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed
with fire? Then the king said unto me, for
what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven,
and I said unto the king. And I just want us to notice
the wisdom in that right there. The king said in verse four,
what request do you make? What do you ask of me? He said,
so I prayed to the God of heaven, and then I said to the king. Verse five, I said unto the king,
if it pleased the king, And if thy servant have found favor
in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the
city of my father's sepulchers, that I may build it." He said,
this is my request. Send me and I'll build it. Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. He said, send me and
I'll build it. Verse six, and the king said unto me, the queen
also sitting by him, for how long shall thy journey be and
when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send
me and I set him a time. This was all done according to
an appointed time. Verse seven, moreover, I said
unto the king, if it pleased the king, let letters be given
me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me
over till I come into Judah. And a letter unto Asaph, the
keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to
make beams for the gates of the palace, which appertained to
the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that
I shall enter into. And the king granted me according
to the good hand of my God upon me. Galatians 1 verse 4 says,
Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will, according to the
authority of God and our Father. God the Son accomplished the
work on the authority of God the Father. Letters were given,
this is on authority of the King. Verse 9, Then I came to the governors
beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king
had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat
the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite heard of it, it
grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek
the welfare of the children of Israel. These two men, Sanballat
and Tobiah, they are the enemies of what Nehemiah is about to
do. They heard that he was coming to help Jerusalem and rebuild
Jerusalem and it, grieved them exceedingly. They were going
to do everything they could do to stop him from his work. Adversaries, enemies of the gospel,
enemies of the cause of Christ. And we're going to see that they're
going to try hard, but it can't be done. It just cannot be done. He is there on the authority
of the king, and he is not going to fail. Verse 10 says, when
Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite heard
of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to
seek the welfare of the children of Israel. And Nehemiah said,
I came anyway. They were so grieved by it, but
he said, I came anyway. Verse 11, so I came to Jerusalem
and was there three days. A great accomplishment happened
in three days. by our deliverer, the one who
sought out our welfare, the one who sought out our care. Verse
12, he said, and I arose in the night, I and some few men with
me. And you know, the scripture says
that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. They collectively
being one God did this alone. But verse 12 says, I rose in
the night, I and some few men with me, neither told I any man
what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Neither was
there any beast with me save the beast that I rode upon."
He's saying, I didn't consult with any man on this. My face
was set like a flint and I rode alone into all of that desolation
and all of that destruction. Our Lord rode triumphantly alone
on the colt of an ass into the depths of our sin and our desolation
and all of our destruction. Verse 13, And I went out by night,
by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, into
the dung-port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were
broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire." He
said, I stood right there on the dung port, the dung hill,
and I viewed the reality of all that ruin. Can you imagine that
man going and seeing all of this ruin, this beautiful city of
God in absolute, utter ruin? Verse 14, then I went on to the
gate of the fountain and to the king's pool, But there was no
place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I
up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall and turned
back and entered by the gate of the valley and so returned."
He said, I saw it all. There was nothing hid from me.
I went alone into the night, into the darkness, into the ruin,
into the desolation. and I saw it all. Verse 16, and
the rulers knew not whether I went or what I did. Neither had I
as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles,
nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work." He said,
I hadn't told it to anyone, not even those who did the work,
those who were going to do the work. Spiritually speaking, concerning
our salvation, concerning our redemption in Christ, in Him,
of Him, through Him, Who did the work? Of Him who did the
work? Here's who did the work in our
salvation. Grace did the work. Mercy did the work. Compassion
did the work. Blood did the work. Righteousness
did the work. Every attribute, every character,
every component of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ took
part in the work of redeeming His people. Verse 17, Then said
I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem
lieth in waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Come, 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 good upon me. and also the king's word
that he had spoken unto me, and they said, Let us rise up and
build. So they strengthened their hands
for this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite,
and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard
it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said, what
is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king?
They said, who do you think you are? What right do you think
you have to do this? You being a man, are you trying
to steal the authority away from the king? And that's the very
mockery that the adversaries and the enemies of the Lord said
to him. The Pharisees, the religious
Jews, they said, what authority are you doing this on? Who do
you think you are? You're speaking blasphemy. You're
trying to make yourself to be God. Little did they know he wasn't
trying to make himself to be anything. He was there on the
authority of the king. Verse 20, Then answered I them,
and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us. Therefore we his servants will
arise and build, but you have no portion, nor rite, nor memorial
in Jerusalem. Christ did this work for a particular
people. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. All right,
now, that's chapter 2. Do we understand the story? He
was in the palace. He heard of their ruin. He wept. He begged. He said, I'm going
down. He asked the king, will you send
me, send letters? The king did. He went on the
authority of the king. He has come down and he has seen
and witnessed and experienced all of this ruin and all of this
destruction in the face of all the mockery, all the adversaries,
everything being against him. He said, God is going to prosper
us and we're going to build this. I'm going to build this now. I want us to see the beauty of
Christ's work. As I head toward closing, you
know, when I say I'm closing, I'm closing as I head toward
closing. Give me a minute. I hope we can
enter into the beauty of the work of Christ by me showing
you something out of chapter three. Nehemiah heard about everything.
He's down there to do something about it. He came to the ruin. And the first thing that he said
was, everything was in ruin. The first thing he said was,
I'm going to rebuild this wall. Everything was in ruin. And he
said, I'm gonna rebuild this wall. Spiritually, that represents
what Christ did for us. Hold your place right here and
turn with me to Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60, this is speaking of
the city that Christ redeemed, heavenly Jerusalem, all right?
The result of His finished work. Isaiah 60, verse 18, this is
rebuilt, redeemed Jerusalem. Isaiah 60, verse 18 says, violence
shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction
within thy borders. But thou shalt call thy walls
salvation, and thy gates praise. That's what you're going to call
the walls of this rebuilt, redeemed city. And that's what you're
going to call the gates. That's what the rebuilding of
these walls represents, salvation. And that's what the rebuilding
of these gates represents, praise. Christ came down to the desolate
city and he said, I'm gonna establish for my people on a sure foundation,
salvation and praise. All right, in closing, go back
to Nehemiah three. This entire chapter, and I hope
the Lord will make this a blessing to you. This just really blessed
my heart. This entire chapter, chapter
three, tells us who worked on the wall and what part of the
wall they worked on. All right, here's, let me just
give you a taste of it. Verse one says, then Eliaship, the
high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priest, and they
builded the sheep gate. And what a picture, the high
priest, you know, the sheep gate is where they brought sheep in
for the sacrifice. They builded the sheep gate,
they sanctified it and set up the doors of it, even unto the
tower of Mia, they sanctified it unto the tower of Hananiel. That's the portion they worked
on. Verse two, next unto him builded the men of Jericho, and
next to them builded Zechariah, the son of Imri. But the fish
gate did the sons of Hassaniah build, who also laid the beams
thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and
the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Merimoth,
the son of Uriah, the son of Chaz. And next unto them repaired
Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, the son of And next unto them repaired Zadok
the son of Banna. And you can see if we kept reading,
this is, there's 32 verses. It's the same thing over and
over. It says, and next to them, and next to them, side by side,
this man, and he put a crew together. Look at verse 31, it does this
all the way to the end. And after him repaired Malkiah
the goldsmith's son unto the place of the Nethanims and of
the merchants over against the gate Miphkad and to the going
up of the corner. They went to the corner. And
between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired
the goldsmiths and the merchants. Started at the sheep gate, they
went all the way around the wall and they came back to the sheep
gate. That's the whole chapter. That's chapter three. I looked
at the definitions of those names. Anytime that you see a genealogy
type, repetitive, it's always good to go to your concordance
and look at the definitions of these names. All of their names
mean something. They were given these names on
purpose to tell us something. I entered into the fact that
these men, I don't know how old they were, but decades before
that, they had parents who were expecting. And they said, well,
what should we name him? And they threw out some options.
And they finally settled on Meshulam. And Meshulam is the one who built
that certain portion of that gate. And it was all on purpose. All of these names were given
to these men on purpose to tell us something. I looked up the
cities. Some of them were from different
cities who came over and worked. The cities mean something. They
went from this tower to this tower. The towers mean something. But just in the definitions of
these men's names, Only their names. Let me just read some
of them to you. Not all of them. Let me read
some of them to you. I've written them in a way so it will flow. I have put in the word and, or
I have connected them with a very small word so it will flow. In the definitions of these names,
Let's see if the Lord will speak to our hearts, okay? Let's see
if the Lord will give us some comfort and enjoyment here in
the book of Nehemiah. I'm gonna give you the first
one just to get us started. Verse one, Nehemiah three, verse
one says, Eliashib, his name means God will restore. First one, that's the first name.
God will restore. All right, no more names, only
definitions. God will restore. He is mindful
of the thorns. He has elevated. He has highly
lifted up through the flame of Jehovah. He is the friend. Friend of sinners. Jehovah has
blessed. God has delivered. God has dealt
righteously in the afflictions. All right, that gets us through
verse four. Verse five says, sound the trumpet. Jehovah knows. The limping was his. bruised his heel. He is the friend. The counsel was his in the secret
of the Lord. Jehovah has delivered. Oh, how
thankful. My strength is God. Fear Jehovah,
for God has favored and we are healed. That gets us into verse
nine. Now I could keep going with this
and keep going with this. You can get you a concordance
and look up these names and you will hear the gospel in it. Let
me show you verse 25. I just, I randomly selected verse
25 as I was looking through these. Pelau means judge. Uzi, Uzi. means I shall have
my sprinklings. The judge says, I will have my
sprinklings of blood. The next name is at the end,
Padaiah, it means Jehovah has ransomed. Parash means flee to
him. The judge says, I'll have my
sprinklings. Jehovah has ransomed, flee to
him. That's the gospel. The gospel
of Christ's work is right here in all these names. I'm gonna
close with the last seven names in this chapter, okay? Here's
one more run of names, very last seven names. God has favored. It was all repaid by Jehovah. That's what Shelemiah means,
repaid by Jehovah. He has been gracious through his wounds. He is the
friend. He has blessed. And listen to
the last one. My king is Jehovah. That's the gospel in a story,
isn't it? Boy, I love chapter 3. Wouldn't you normally look
at that and, well, that's great, those men built the wall, let's
go to chapter 4. That's the gospel in a story.
And we'll see if the Lord lets us go to chapter 4, but may He
bless us up to chapter 3. All right, let's all stand together.