Nehemiah, let's read chapter
1. The words of Nehemiah, the son
of Hecaliah, came to pass in the month of Shisloot in the
twentieth year, as I was in Shushan, the palace, that Hanani, one
of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah. I asked
them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left
of the captivity, concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto
me, 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. The gates thereof are burned
with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, I sat
down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted, prayed before
the God of heaven, And I said, O, 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 commandment.
Let thine ear now be attentive, thine eyes open, that thou mayest
hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now.
day and night for the children of Israel, thy servants, and
confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned
against thee, both I and my Father's house have sinned, we have dealt
very corruptly against thee, have not kept the commandments,
nor the statutes, nor the judgments which thou commandest thy servant
Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the
word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye
transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But
if ye 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. Now these are
thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy
great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee,
let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant,
and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name and
prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day. Grant him mercy in
the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer. These are things too wonderful
for me to tell and for you to hear. Nehemiah, his name means
consolation. Ezra's name meant help, consolation. There was an old man named Simeon
waiting in the temple for the consolation of Israel. And in
walked a young virgin with a child, her firstborn child. And old
Simeon saw God's salvation in a person. Verse 1 begins, these
are the words of Nehemiah. Well, this is the word of God
through Nehemiah. In John 14, our Lord said, the
words that I speak are not mine, but the Father which speaketh
is in me. He said, I was in the palace
when the word came to me. Our Lord, now you know that everything
about Nehemiah and everything we're going to say is Christ. It represents Him. Nehemiah said,
I was in the palace when the word came to me. Well, our Lord.
was in the palace on the throne when the command came. The covenant
was made between he and the father. The report that he heard, someone
came about the affliction and reproach and the captivity and
the desolation and everything was broken down and burned and
in sad shape, in sad shape, the report came. So he came. But first he made intercession. First Nehemiah made intercession
for the people. He prayed for the people. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is the great intercessor of his people, for
his people. Hebrews 7.25 says he's able to
save to the uttermost. Remember that in Acts chapter
1? Though they be from the uttermost, I'll bring them. Christ is coming
to gather them. But it goes on to say in Hebrews
7 that, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Christ is the eternal intercessor. Before he came, he made intercession
for his people. When he came, he prayed constantly
for them. And now he ever lives to make
intercession for his people. He's the great intercessor. Verses
4 through 6, he says, I wept, I mourned. Our Lord literally
wept when he came. Jesus wept, wept over Jerusalem. It was broken down, the gates
were burned with fire, people in affliction, captivity. He
prayed, O Lord God of heaven. Our Lord prayed, Father, glorify
thy name. Father, I have finished the work
you gave me to do. Before it started, he said, I
finished. It's a foregone conclusion that
Nehemiah is going to get the wall built and that Ezra is going
to have, that Zerubbabel is going to finish the temple and he's
going to finish it. The cap, the top stone is going
to be laid on that temple. Wait till we get to Zechariah.
The top stone is going to be laid on that temple with shouts,
grace. Grace until it started by grace
and it ended by grace and one man built it. Christ, builder. Brother Gabe is preaching from
Psalm 127 this morning, except the Lord built a house, they
labored vainly. Well, Nehemiah prayed for the
sins, he confessed the sins of the people and he claimed them
as his own. He said, I have sinned. But our
Lord knew no sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew no
sin, yet God laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It says He
was made sin. It's a great mystery that He
was so God put on him, he bore our sins
in his body on a tree, such a great mystery, too wonderful for us
to even understand, but somehow or another Christ was made sin
for us. And those Psalms where David
is confessing his sin, our Lord could say that on the cross.
He was made sinful, sin, though he did not commit them. He did
not commit, and Isaiah 53 says, he was numbered with the transgression,
and he made intercession for them. So, and I was going to
turn to 1 John 1, if any man confess, confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive our sins through Christ. And
chapter 2, verse 1, 1 John says, if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. And he's a propitiation for our
sin. But not only our sin, but the whole world. Who? The Gentiles. Gentile, everyone
for whom Christ died, everyone for whom Christ prayed is saved,
will be saved. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. Well, he is the righteous man
and his prayer availed everything. He said that, didn't he? He said,
I know you always hear me. You always give me what I ask."
And he said, I said it for their sake. Their sake. So he's the
great intercessor like Nehemiah. Christ is the great cup bearer.
And you love that. The last line of chapter 1, I
was the king's cup bearer. Cup bearer. Chapter 2, it came
to pass in the month of Nisan, the 20th year of Artaxerxes.
The next book we're going to look at is Esther. Oh, it makes
me thrilled to think about it. Esther, artist Xerxes, that's
his king. He said the wine was before him
and I took the king's cup and I gave him the wine that he loved,
that he desired. I was his cupbearer. That was
my purpose, to bring before him that red wine that he that he
desired, that he needed. You know what that's talking
about. And Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundations
of the world. Every single sinner against God
had to have the blood to make atonement for his soul. Well,
it's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats and lambs.
They can't put away one sin. So Christ was the Lamb slain
before Adam. Before Adam's end, the Lamb slain
was waiting. Like Isaac and Abraham, before
they got up on that mountain, the ram was waiting in the thicket. Caught by his head, by his arm.
Their substitute. I was the king's cupbearer. So,
Nehemiah, whose name means, what did I say it meant? Consolation. He's the intercessor. He's the
cupbearer for the king, and Christ is our intercessor. Christ is
the Lamb slain, the cupbearer. The cup, the cup, the cup, the
cup, the cup. Keeps talking about the cup throughout
the scriptures, doesn't he? Psalm 116, another Psalm of Christ. We take it for ourselves. I'll
take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Well, I say that, don't you? I'll take this. Christ said,
the cup that I bear, are you able to bear it? They said, we
are. He said, you don't know what you're talking about. But,
He said, you will drink of this cup. My cup that I give you,
not the cup God gave me. But the cup I give you, it'll
never run dry. He drank the cup God gave him
dry. The cup of wrath. And Psalm 116
says, I'll take the cup of salvation, call on the name of the Lord,
I'll pay my vows unto God. Christ made a vow to save his... We're going to look in the second
message at his forlorn wife, his bride, fallen bride. He's
got to go redeem her. Christ is a cup bearer. He's
the Redeemer. He's the bearer of the wrath
of God against our sins. Christ took that cup and He drank it. The cup of wrath.
Remember when He said at the supper with His disciples, take
this cup. This cup that I give you. This
is the New Testament, the New Covenant in My blood. that I'm
going to shed for the remission of your sins, that I'm going
to bear the wrath of God. I'm the Lamb, he was saying. I'm just going to take away the
sins of the world, all of God's people. And he told the disciples,
he said, shall I not drink it? I must. Isaiah 51 talks about
the cup, and God says to His people, He said, you're not going
to drink this cup. You're not going to drink this
cup of my wrath and indignation and my furies. You're not going
to. I'm going to take it. I'm going to remove it from you.
You're not going to drink it. But somebody is. And that was
Christ. He's the cup bearer. He said,
aren't you glad? So Christ, like Nehemiah, was
the intercessor, the cup bearer, the builder of the wall. The
builder of the wall. The temple was already built. A hundred years later, this is
about a hundred years later, I think, if my calculations are
correct, but he came, Nehemiah came to build the wall, to build
The wall, it was broken down and the gates that were burned
with fire, wooden gates, and so the gates were burned with
fire and the walls were broken down so they were assaulted by
and just enemies everywhere were
coming in after them. They needed to be hedged about. They needed to be protected.
They needed to be surrounded. Are we going to sing that same
with salvation's walls surrounded? I can smile at Satan's foes,
are we? I don't know. We ought to. You
going to play that? The wall, the builder of the
wall, there was a council in chapter 2 held between the king
and Nehemiah. The great king held a council
with his counselor, who was Nehemiah, who was the consolation of Israel,
the council, the consolation, the Christ. The council covenant
between the great king and Nehemiah to build the wall. They made
this council. This was the determinate will
and counsel of God Almighty before the world began. And it was this
covenant, this counsel was made between two. And they agreed
that Nehemiah would go and build this wall to protect the people
of Israel from their enemy. And Isaiah 42, listen to this,
Behold my servant whom I of hope, speaking of Christ. Nehemiah
became a servant of our services. Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall
he not break. Smoking flax shall he not quench.
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail. or even be discouraged. We're
going to see in a minute how they tried to get Nehemiah to
run and hide. They tried to stop him from the
work. Couldn't stop him. This is of
God. And he goes on in Isaiah 42 to
speak of Christ. I've called thee in righteousness.
I'll hold thine hand. I'll keep thee. I'll give thee
a covenant for a covenant of the people, like to the Gentile. And he went on in Isaiah 51 to
say in verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. But this people is robbed and
spoiled and afflicted and they're a prey and none delivereth. And Isaiah went on to say, so
there's no man. He saw there was no man, so he
put on righteousness like a breastplate, a helmet of salvation, and his
right arm came. I'm going, sent by God, the great
King, to do this work. So Christ came. He came to build
the wall. Now, the walls, the temple was
built by Zerubbabel. and overseen by Ezra. Now Nehemiah's
come, he's sent to build the wall of the city, the gates.
Look at Isaiah 26. If you don't already know where
this is, you need to remember it. Isaiah 26, you know, verse
3, I'm sure that will keep him in perfect peace. You remember
Ezra just out of the blue, it said peace. But Isaiah 26, verse
1, this is where the Hymn comes from, I just quoted, Isaiah 26,
1. In that day, in that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Why? Because salvation will God appoint
for walls and for books. With salvation's walls surrounded,
I will smile at Satan's bow. Christ himself is the wall. He is our salvation. Isaiah 60,
it says this, Isaiah 60, verse, I wrote it down somewhere. Isaiah,
look at this. Listen to this. It says, thy
walls shall be called salvation. And thy gates, praise. My, my. I was going to have you turn
to Revelation, but I don't have time. But read it for yourself.
Revelation 21. The angel said, Come, I want to show you the
city. He said to John, Come, I want to show you the city.
And he saw Jerusalem come down. He said, There are walls. He said, Walls. Protected. This is salvation. Our God is
a wall. God has us pedged about. In Christ,
He is the wall. We're in Christ. We're saved.
He's our fortress. He's our refuge, isn't He? He's our protection. He's our
shield. He's our wall. We need not fear
anything, certainly not anything or anyone, any principality,
any power, any plague. He's our wall. He's a wall. His head's just about. Nothing
and no one can hurt us, touch us, unless he purposes it. And then nothing and no one can
stop it. Do you understand that? Please,
if you don't understand that, if you don't believe that, you
will not be settled. But if you are, Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in him. That will keep him in perfect
peace. His mind has stayed on him, our
wall, our shield, our defender, our protector, our high tower,
our city of refuge. Revelation 21 talks about the
glory of the walls, the stones of the walls, the gates, all
those precious stones that covered the gates. There were twelve
gates, three on each side, four east, west, north and south,
three on each side. That's the four gospels wherein
the triune God all say there's one way, a gate, Christ. The gate, the way, the truth,
the light. Three gates, the way, the truth,
the light. It's all Christ, the way, and
the city, and all of God. Twelve foundations upon which
the walls were built. Built on no other foundation
than who? Christ the Lord. All in all,
it goes. This... VMI is a wall builder. Our Lord,
Jesus Christ, Not only built this work of salvation, but He
is our salvation. You see? He is. We don't trust
in a doctrine of righteousness. We trust in Christ, our righteousness.
He's our righteousness. Because He lives. We live. Because
He ever lives to make intercession. Does Christ have to pray for
us now? No. He's just there. And the father sees him, you
know, and the father sees him, you know, he sees us in him. He doesn't have to say a thing.
Like David looked beside him, there's Mephibosheth. Who's he
think of? Jonathan. Every time he looks
at him. And when he looks at us, he sees
Christ. Isn't that wonderful? So, like Nehemiah, the Lord is
the great intercessor, the great cup-bearer, the great wall-builder. This is just marvelous. Did you read that? Chapter 2,
he did this in secret. He came in secret. Nobody knew
he was coming. He didn't tell anybody, but a
few chosen men. Look at it. Verse 12, I rose
in the night. I had a few men with me. They know who I am. They knew
who I was and why I had come. I didn't tell anybody, but I
took three, a few chosen men with me to survey the place to
do this work. And I showed them, they knew
who I was. Sent by the great King to do this work. They knew.
Nobody else knew. And He did it at night. He came
in darkness. Light shone in darkness. But the darkness comprehended
it not. This is condemnation. Light has
come into the world, middle of darkness. Our Lord came in darkness,
didn't He? Literally, this is chapter 2,
Luke chapter 2, is when Christ came. Born in Bethlehem at night,
nobody knew it but a few shepherds. He told a few shepherds, a few
wise men. They saw his star and they came where he was. In the
temple, 12 years old, 12-year-old boy sitting in the temple asking
questions and being asked questions. Who is this? Who is this young
man with all this wisdom? A few people knew. A few knew. Most did not know. Then He took
a few disciples up on that mountain, that Mount of Transfiguration,
where His glory shone forth. And they knew His person, and
they knew His purpose for coming. Just a few. And even now, Even
today, in this dark, sinful world, there are few that understand. There's only a remnant now whom
God has revealed Christ to, His purpose for coming, and the fact
that He finished the work. All of religion today says He's
done all it can do. Now it's up to you. They don't
know Jesus Christ. And that is the biggest, most
blasphemous affront to and dishonor of the Lord Jesus Christ that
you could possibly say. He's done all he can do. Now, you've got to finish this
thing. I despise that. God does. Christ said, it's finished. Didn't it? We're going to see.
This wall was built. Okay? So he took his chosen few
up on that mountain to show himself and like Nehemiah. And verse
17, he said to these chosen few, you see the distress we're in. The city's life wastes. The gates
are burned with fire. Come, let us build a wall. Christ
had no help in building, in this work of salvation, did he? But
he chose some men to go out and preach the gospel, which is the
power of God unto salvation. To preach Christ himself. Hold
forth Christ. He said, go out in all the world.
You see the distress we're in? You see? The fields are white
with harvest. There's sinners everywhere. Go,
preach the gospel. I'll be with you. We're going
to build this work. We're going to build the kingdom.
There's stones. I've got people. I'm going to
make living stones and put them in the wall. Oh, I thought, you know, when
Nehemiah heard the condition, the affliction approach his brethren
around, he sat down and he wept. And I thought, oh, how we ought
to weep over. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning. Quit joking and cutting up. We've got unsaved children
and spouses and all that. Don't act like and sound like
the world. We've got, it's serious. It's coming to a close. We're
in distress. Our unsaved relatives, stop joking
around. Tell them the desperate state
that they're in. Come. Hear the gospel that's
able to save. Really, it really is. At a time
when you think not, Christ is coming. If you're not in the
Kingdom, you're in a desperate shape. It's serious. So he wept and he came. It says
in verse 18, the hand of God was upon me. Like Ezra kept saying,
the hand of God was upon me. The hand of God was upon me.
Alright, from the time he came until the wall was finished,
Nehemiah had enemies. If you read it, he had enemies.
In every chapter, they were out to get him, out to stop this.
Chapter 2, verse 19, there's a fellow named Sanballat and
his cronies, and that's Satan. And he heard, he laughed at the
score, he mocked. You can't build this wall. They even said to our Lord when
He's hanging on the cross, you that said you'd rebuild the temple
in three days, come down from that cross. They laughed and
mocked. Build the temple in three days.
Look at you. You need to look at Him. You need to look to Him. Chapter
4, verse 1, Sanballat heard and he rebuilt the wall. He was wroth.
He took great indignation, mocked the Jews. He not only mocked
Nehemiah, but he mocked his followers, his helpers. He mocked them.
Verse 7, it came to pass that he came and this Sanballat, this
verse 8, they conspired all of them together. They conspired
together to hinder it. Isn't that what the Pharisees
did and the Sadducees did? They conspired, they took counsel
together to try to stop Christ. You can't stop Him. Aren't you
glad? Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
His grace is irresistible? That you can't resist it? You
can't stop it? He's out to get you? Nothing
and no one can stop Him. I like that. Don't you like that?
If your lost son or daughter, if Christ's purpose to have them,
He's going to have them. Isn't that your hope? That's
our only hope. We try, we fail. It's up to Him. So we pray to Him. And, oh my,
verse 9, nevertheless. They tried to stop it, nevertheless.
We made our prayer unto God and set a watch, set a watch. Now look at chapter 6. Oh, you're
going to love this. Chapter 6, they tried to sweet-talk him. They tried to
flatter him. Verses 2 and 3, they said, let's
meet together. Let's talk this over a little
bit, like Nicodemus came to him. No, they meant mischief. That's
what he said. And he said, here's what Nehemiah
said. He said, I sent messengers unto them saying, I'm doing a
great work and I'm not stopping. And we're not going to talk about
it. I'm here to do it. I'm on a mission and I'm going
to get it done. And then he had some friends even that told him,
Nehemiah, they're out to get you. We need to run. We need
to hide. You need to protect yourself. Don't go. They'll kill
you, Nehemiah. Does that sound familiar? Peter and all of them
said, don't go to Jerusalem. It says he set his face like
a flint. Look at verse 11. He said in verse 11, should such
a man as I flee, flee? No, not flee. I'm going to run like David in
the face of that giant. If I don't, You're all doomed. Flee! I'm going to run, and I
want to do this work. Verse 11, that's what it says,
verse 11. So Christ set his face like a
flint. Now look at verse 15. So the
wall was finished. Got your attention there, didn't
you? Finished! Done. Who did it? Nehemiah did
it. The Lord, throughout the scriptures,
when he talks about David and Moses and these men, these leading
men who are all pictures of Christ, God made it sound like they did
everything by themselves. And that's on purpose. Because
Christ did when he had by himself purged our sins, finished the
work of redemption, sat down. There's a seat in glory. There
was not a seat in the temple of old, in the tabernacle of
old, because that man's work was never finished. Well, Christ
sat down. In fact, he is our mercy seat. And we sit down. We rest in him. We are seated with him in the
heavenly throne. The work's finished. Done. Tis
done. That great transaction's done.
I am my Lord's and He is mine. And it just remains to be seen.
Like old Joshua, he said, he said, it's over before it started. Just shout. It's all over but
the shout. And the trumpet sound. Well,
this work was finished. This work, verse 16, it says,
it came to pass that when all our enemies heard, the heathen
saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes. They perceived this work was
wrought of our God. God did this. We couldn't stop
it. That's what old Gamaliel, remember
Paul's teacher, he said, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel
didn't know what he was saying, but he said in Acts chapter 5,
he said when the people were trying to, you know, stop the
gospel and the apostles and all that, they said, Gamaliel said,
if this works of God, we're not going to stop it. We're not going
to stop it. Well, it is. And they can't. And nothing shall stop it. So
Nehemiah came and he was sent, the great consolation, the intercessor,
the cupbearer, the builder of the wall. He represents Christ. One more. In chapter 8, look
at this. And then four times in Nehemiah
and once in Ezra, He's given this name, Nehemiah, four times
and Nehemiah ate. Don't you love that? Where they
all got together in that pulpit of wood and Ezra got up there
and read the law distinctly and the people understood it and
they wept and cried and cried and wept and said, hold your
peace, it's the day of mirth and you know. They understood,
they understood. Do you understand? You ought
to be smiling and weeping for your children, but smiling for
yourselves. And it says in verse 9 that Nehemiah
was there when they had this big celebration. The work was
finished. They're all there. And he's called
the Tershithah. Four times, the Tershithah. Tershitha. Tershitha. Once in Ezra, the
Tershitha. Tershitha. What's that mean?
Governor. The ruler. The one who reigns
and rules. Are you with me? Call His name.
Wonderful. Counselor. The mighty God. The
Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. Of His government. Let me know when. He ranked,
say unto the heathen, the Lord reigneth. Who? The Lord Jesus
Christ. The intercessor, the cupbearer,
the builder of the wall, the governor of his people. Christ, the consolation of Israel. Have you seen it? His salvation? Okay. All right. Boy, I enjoyed
that.