Go with me, if you would, to
Nehemiah chapter one. Nehemiah chapter one. You can
see that the book before Nehemiah is Ezra. And you may remember that when
we first started our building process, which was quite a while
ago, a little bit longer than we anticipated, but when we first
started the building process, we went through the book of Ezra.
And I believe the Lord really made it a blessing to us. He
made it a real blessing to me. It was a very timely book to
go through. That book, the book of Ezra is
about the children of Israel who were in captivity. They were besieged by King Nebuchadnezzar,
who was the King of Babylon. And they were taken captive to
Babylon for 70 years. And the book of Ezra is about
them being delivered from their captivity and coming back to
Jerusalem and finding the city in absolute ruin. It was just
in total destruction. It was leveled, that city was
leveled. And it's about how the Lord moved on the heart of this
king whose name was Cyrus to make a proclamation. we are going
to rebuild the house of the Lord. They came back and they saw all
this ruin. And he said, we're gonna rebuild the temple. First
thing, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna rebuild the house
of the Lord. And throughout that book, it speaks of the construction
of the Lord's house. So, you know, it was very timely
for us to go through that book and in that moment, as we began
the construction of our building. And it was a real blessing to
all of us. I remember the last message that
we had from the study, I was talking to a brother in the foyer
out here and he said to me, he said, I wish there was a second
Ezra in the Bible. You know how you got first John,
second John, first Peter, second Peter. He said, I wish there
was a second Ezra in the Bible. And I said, there is, it's called
Nehemiah. Nehemiah continues the rebuilding
of the city of Jerusalem, specifically the wall of the city. Ezra focused
on the temple. Nehemiah focuses on the wall. I tried as soon as that was over,
I tried to go immediately into Nehemiah, but the Lord just didn't
lead me to do it. And I have tried many times since
then. It's been a while now. I go back to this book all the
time, trying to see if the Lord will bless it to me and Give
me a message from it, but the Lord has to this point never
let me really enter into it. Monday, I came back to this book
and I really believe the Lord has given me a message. I believe
I am so thankful. I was just so overjoyed to see
a message from this first chapter. I'm not, I don't know if he'll
let us go through the book, but I believe he's given me a message
from chapter one so that we'll walk in the light he's given
us. Now this book starts in chapter one with this man, Nehemiah,
praying to God. And we just read it. This man
is pleading with God. He is begging God on behalf of
Jerusalem and the children of Israel. And so that we can immediately
enter in to the spiritual picture of this, so that we can, I want
you, I don't wanna build up to anything. I wanna show you what
the Lord revealed to me. I'll go ahead and tell you that
I have titled this message, Nehemiah, A Picture of Christ. In this first chapter, Nehemiah
is making intercession to God on behalf of His chosen people. And the scripture says that our
Lord Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for us.
He is pleading His Spirit. It's the Spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He groans with groanings that we could never utter. Hebrews 4 tells us how our Lord
made that intercession and why He ever lives to make that intercession.
Hold your place right here and go with me to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4, this is speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says, seeing then that we have a great
high priest, And, you know, when we read something like that,
you think, well, that's Old Testament. That's, you know, law. And that's, that's just, that's
another world. One of these days, we're going
to rejoice so greatly in the fact that we have a great high
priest. one of these days we're gonna
enter into what our high priest has done for us. The high priest
is the one who went in once a year alone, nobody went with him.
He went by himself into the Holy of Holies and he gave blood to
God in order to appease God's anger and satisfy God's wrath
because of the sin of the people. And that's what Christ has done
for us. That's what He did for us. He went into the Holy of
Holies and He offered blood alone to satisfy God's wrath for us.
So verse 14 says, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, Let us
hold fast our profession, and watch this, for we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. That's what Nehemiah 1 is all
about. Right now, no, what we just read,
that right there. That is the spiritual picture
of what we're gonna see here. Christ, our great high priest,
making intercession to God for us. And I pray this will be as
much of a blessing to you as it was to me. I have just, this
is something that I have personally just fed on for three days. Our
Lord making that intercession for us through himself being
touched and touching the feeling of our infirmities, our infirmities. All right, now let's go back
to our text, Nehemiah 1. As we read these verses, let's
immediately go into the spiritual picture of this, okay? We're
just gonna immediately see Christ in it, and I'm gonna read some
of this as being the words of Christ, okay? Nehemiah 1, verse
1, it says, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. These are
the words of the son of Hakaliah. In this whole book, this whole
book that we hold in our hands, these are the words of the son
of God, Jehovah himself, the great I am. And in these words,
this is what we'll find, all right? The name Nehemiah means
Jehovah comforts. Within these words, that's what
we'll find, Jehovah comforts. And the name Hekeliah means whom
Jehovah enlightens. Jehovah comforts whom Jehovah
enlightens. Jehovah has shined the light
on. Jehovah has given the light to. The one who Nehemiah represents.
the Lord Jesus Christ. So these are the words of Nehemiah,
the son of Hakaliah, and here they are, right? He said in verse
one, he went on to say, and it came to pass in the month Chislew
in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the palace. The month
Chislew was the ninth month in their calendar. And whenever
I read that, you know, as I was looking all this up and reading
about all these names and things, when I read that, this thought
came into my mind. That's how long it took for the
child to be born. Just so happened that this happened
in the ninth month. That's how long it took for the
son to be given. The one who would have all the
government on his shoulders. whose name would be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. How amazing it is that God would
come down. How amazing it is. The one who
is and possesses the light of the glory of God in his face.
The one who came with healing in his wings to bring comfort
to all of his people. So he said, verse one, and it
came to pass in the month Chislew in the 20th year as I was in
Shushan the palace. That's the palace of the king.
That's where he was. It's where the whole thing started. All of this intercession, it
started in the palace of the king. In the beginning was the
word. The word was with God in the
palace of the king. And he said, there in the palace
of the king, it came to pass, verse two, that Hanani, and his
name means, and I just love this, his name means grace. It means gracious. This is how
the intercession started, all right? This is where it all began.
He said, I was in the palace and grace came to me. I was there
in my palace. and grace came up to me. Verse
two, Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah,
and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which
were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. He said,
I asked them about my people. Verse three, and they said unto
me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the
province are in great affliction and reproach." This whole thing
was concerning a remnant. It's all about this remnant. This intercession was made for
a particular remnant of people that were sought out to be looked
after and cared for. And when the word from the palace
demanded to know the state of their condition, this is what
grace said, they're ruined. They are ruined. Verse three,
he said, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in
the province are in great affliction. and reproach, the wall of Jerusalem
also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
They are fallen, they are broken, they're desolate. They are desolate,
they are leveled. Verse four, and it came to pass
when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned
certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven. You think about our Lord standing
there at Lazarus's tomb. The scripture says he wept. It doesn't say he cried. It says
he wept. He wept for Jerusalem. As he was standing there at Lazarus's
tomb, they looked at him and said, oh, how he loved him. Behold,
how he loved him. How many times does the scripture
say that our Lord did what he did because of the compassion
that he felt for his own? This is what I love about our
king in his throne. He didn't do anything just because
of a legal responsibility. He did it for the love that was
in His heart. He was moved with compassion
for us. Why did He go to the end for
His people? Scripture says He loved them.
Greater love had no man. He loved them to the end. Herein
is love. Herein is compassion and pity. That's what our Lord felt in
his heart when he saw us in our ruined condition, cast out in
our loathing. Our time was a time of love. We just sang, oh, the love that
sought me, oh, the blood that bought me, oh, the grace that
brought me to the fold. Grace did it. It was because
of God's. Why was I brought back God's
grace? That's the reason why the song
says marvelous, wondrous grace that brought me to the fault.
So God's grace said to the one in the palace, they're ruined. Verse four, and it came to pass
when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned
certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. He
said, when I heard that, my heart immediately poured out intercession
for them. When grace said, our people are
ruined. He said, my heart immediately
poured out intercession for them. Verse five. and said, 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. He cried, I plead the covenant. As soon as he heard of their
state, he cried to the father, I plead the covenant. Father,
I plead the covenant of mercy. Verse six, he said, let thine
ear now be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear
the prayer of thy servant. You know what the father said
in Isaiah 42 verse one, behold my servant. Behold the one who
will accomplish judgment for the Gentiles. That's what he
will do. He will accomplish judgment for the Gentiles. Behold the
one who will restore the heathens, bring back the outcast. Behold
the one who shall not fail. My servant whom I have chosen,
my elect, I choose him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse six, he said,
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. Somebody will hear that and say,
that can't be Christ. Christ was sinless. Yes, he was. But the glory of the intercession
of the gospel is he took our sins and our sorrows and he made
them his very own. He bore that burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. Look with me over at Psalm 40. Psalm 40, this is Christ speaking. Verse 6, He said, Sacrifice and
offering thou didst not desire? Mine ears hast thou opened? Burnt
offering and sin offering thou hast not required? Then said
I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my
heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. He said in
verse 11, withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. He said, my iniquity. Verse 13,
he said, be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste
to help me. Why is he saying that? is because
in making Himself to be one with His people, He was touched with
the feeling of their infirmities. Touched with all of our sin. Touched with all of our sin.
Look back at our text, Nehemiah 1. Verse 6 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." He numbered himself with the
transgressors. He truly did. The amazing thing
about that is he himself was not a transgressor. He was not
a transgressor, but he literally actually numbered himself among
the transgressors. He said, Father, lay their sin
on me and number me right there among them.
Just number me one of them. He was not ashamed to call us
brethren. He made Himself truly to be one
with His people, and that's how He made His people truly to be
one with Him. Verse 7, 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. Christ himself did keep the commandments. He said in Matthew 5 verse 17,
think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And that's what he did. But again,
all of the transgression of his people, And first John three
says that transgression is breaking the law, not keeping the commandments. That's what transgression is.
All of the law breaking of his people. If you want to think
about sin in that way, all of the law breaking of his people
was truly laid on him and he took it and he owned it. for
His own before the judgment throne of the Father. He took it all.
He literally took it all. So He pled intercession to God
for His people, with His people, as His people. In verse 8, He
said, Remember, I beseech thee the word that thou commandest
thy servant Moses, saying, if you transgress, I will scatter
you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep
my commandments and do them, though they were of you cast
out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, Yet will I gather
them from thence and will bring them unto the place that I have
chosen to set my name there. He said, Father, if you have
dealt with them in me. He truly said, for us, with us, as us. And if he didn't say this, I
just couldn't repeat this. But he said, Father, I own their
sin. I own that. He took our place
in a way that we envision somebody tagging out. That's not what
I'm talking about. We're about to read it. But I'm
telling you, he took our place. And as me and you said, this
is what I've done, I know what I'm worthy of. And in Him doing that, we took
His place. And I don't even know how to
say it other than that. I don't wanna be blasphemous. But because Christ did that for
us, we can say to the Father, this is what we've done before
you and we know what we deserve. He said, if you keep the commandments,
I will gather you from the uttermost into a place where I've chosen
to put my name there. He said, if you don't, if you
break the law, I'm gonna scatter you abroad. I'm gonna cast you
out. And in this, I'm telling you,
as Christ stood there for us in our place, He made it so that
we can stand there in His place. And He said, deal with them in
Me and deal with Me in them. And that's what God the Father
does. He deals with Christ in us. Now, very quickly go to Hebrews
7. It's just such a picture of Nehemiah,
or Nehemiah is such a picture of this. The end of verse 21,
Hebrews 7, the end of verse 21 says, the Lord swear and will
not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The father said to the son, you
are the priest of intercession for your people forever. You're
their priest forever. Verse 22, by so much was Jesus
made a surety of a better Testament. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
All those other priests in the old Testament didn't continue
forever. They died. Verse 24, but this man, because
he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able
also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, in
him, through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them. Verse 26 says, for such an high
priest became us. who is holy, harmless, undefiled. You know, if he became us, we
became what we just read right there. Holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. That's what he made us to be
because he joined himself to sinners. He made us to be separate
from sinners. made higher than the heavens.
Verse 27, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer
up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people's.
For this he did once when he offered up himself. He saved
his people to the uttermost, from the uttermost when he offered
up himself. So one more time, go back to
our text, Nehemiah 1, verse 10 says, Now these are thy servants and
thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy
strong hand." He said, Father, this was your work. It was your
will. It was your way. Thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And he ended his
intercession by saying in 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, and grant him
mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer. Prosper thy servant this day. He said, and if the Lord lets
us continue, we'll see he's about to do something. And he said,
prosper thy servant this day. Can't we hear the prayer from
the Garden of Gethsemane in that? Father, if you want me to bear
this cup, I'm the cup bearer. And if you want me to bear this
cup and drink it, I will. Thy will be done. Father, I'm
going to the cross to accomplish this intercession that I'm praying
for. Prosper thy servant this day. Did he? Absolutely he did. Absolutely. Chapter 2 begins
with him actually coming to His people where they are. And we'll
see. I don't know if the Lord will
let us continue or not, but if He does, we'll look at that next
time. Let's all stand together.