You were talking about singing. I
think you remember when our Lord, after they left the room and
just celebrated the Passover at the Lord's table, said they
sung a hymn. Can you imagine that? I wonder
what he said. He honored the Father and honored
himself. What a great God. What a great God. If you were
to turn with me in your Bible to Nehemiah, where we'd be looking
in Nehemiah chapter 4, I want to read a passage from the book
of Ephesians to begin with. Ephesians chapter 6. That's not where we're looking.
In Nehemiah 1 verse 7, he says, we have dealt very corruptly
against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes,
nor the judgments which you commanded us, O Moses." So here we have
in the book of Ephesians one of his statutes and one of his
judgments given to his church. Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
and high places. Wherefore, because of this, taken
to you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day. And having done all to stand Therefore, having done all to
stand, stand therefore, having your loins good about with truth,
having on the breastplate of righteousness your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above all things,
above all, taking the shield of faith, for with you shall
be able to quench all the fiery darks of the wicked, and the
hammer of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God. praying our way with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints." That's what
we saw Nehemiah do last night, praying for the saints of God,
praying that God would bless them and preserve them and keep
them. Then he says, verse 19, "...and for me, and for me, the
utterance may be given unto me." that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel." That's what we need
this morning, that God would open his word and make known
unto us the mystery of the gospel. I saw last night that God raised
up a man named Nehemiah to come seek the welfare of the children
of Israel who were in great distress. Jerusalem was in a mess. The walls had been torn down,
and they'd been like that for years. And I think people had
just become accustomed to it. You see it long enough you don't
even see it. It doesn't bother you. And now God has stirred
in Nehemiah's heart to go to Jerusalem, and he has letters
from the king to come, and he's going to rebuild those walls. And he's stirring up the people,
encouraging the people, and strengthening them. We've got a work that needs
to be done. And what we're going to look
at today in this chapter, it records that work. and what they
did in that work, and the opposition that came from that work. We
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
So, verse 1 of chapter 4, that it came to pass. Notice in the
scriptures how many times that it came to pass, and it always
It came to pass, and when Sambalak heard that we builded the wall,
he was wroth, he was very angry. The enemy doesn't like it. When
they heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth and took great
indignation and mocked the Jews. Just mocked them. Here's how
he mocked them. He spake before his brethren
and the army of Samaria and said, what do these feeble Jews? Basically,
who do they think they are? Who do they think they are? Well,
I can tell you who they are. I think it's in Zechariah, let
me find it, where it talks about the people that were there in
Jerusalem. When, here it is, Jeremiah chapter
39 verse 8, when the Chaldeans came in and they destroyed these
walls, it said, and the Chaldeans, Jeremiah 39 verse 8, and the
Chaldeans burned the king's houses and the houses of the people
with fire and break down the walls of Jerusalem. But Nebuchadnezzar,
the captain of the guard, left the poor of the people which
had nothing and the land of Judah and the gates of Tenerife and
Peel at the same time. Who is there? The poor. Who is
the gospel preached to? The poor. The poor in spirit,
those who have nothing. And that's who we'll hear in
there mocking them. You bunch of feeble Jews. Will they fortify
themselves? Will they think they can build
them a wall and fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Everything
they say, everything they use in mockery is going to come to
pass. They're going to sacrifice and worship their God. And I
want you to see this next statement. Will they revive the stones out
of the heat of the rubbish which are burned? That's exactly what
they're going to do. They're going to do what? Revive
the stones. They're not going to go get new
stones. They're going to revive the stones. Where do these stones
come from? Well, when Solomon built the
temple, they had no stones made, and they were made in a rock
quarry, and they were every one made exactly where they were
supposed to fit into the wall. You heard no chisel, no hammer
while the temple was being built. Where are those stones at? They're
there under the rubbish. The problem is you can't see
them for the rubbish. And they said, are they going to revive
these stones? Are they going to bring these
stones from the dead? That's what life is? That's a
picture of salvation, until God revives the stones from nothing. Will they revive the stones from
the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? You know what's wrong? Rubbish. Everywhere you look,
it's rubbish. You know what rubbish is? It's
just trash. It's just stuff. And to revive the stones, You
have to work through the rubbish. You ever try to talk to someone
about the Lord, and they've got all these things, all this stuff
that's in their mind for years, and they've been talking, and
they say, that's just rubbish? Rubbish. Verse 3, Now to buy
the Ammonite was by him, and said, Even that which they build,
if a fox go up on their little wall, he shall break down their
stone wall. Even if they do build, it won't
last. against it. It'll last. If God builds something,
it'll last. It'll last for all eternity.
It sure will. So what does Nehemiah do? When
they're standing there mocking, basically he ignores them and
goes to his God in prayer. And that's what we should do.
Someone said, if you ever get in a spitting contest with a
skunk, you may win, but you'll still come out smelling like
a skunk. He said, Here, 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. Now, a lot of people try to explain
away this verse, and I'm just going to read it to you and leave
it at that. And he said, And cover not their iniquity. And
let not this sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have
provoked..." You know what they're doing? You think about this. They think they're mocking God's
people, but they're provoking God to anger. You know what it
is to provoke somebody? Just keep hitting them. I dare
you to do something. I dare you to do something. It's
provoking them. You want to provoke God? He said
they provoke God to anger. They come today, and that's enough. I'm telling you right now, there's
going to be a day coming, that's enough. They provoke things of anger
before the builders. So what did he do? We built the
wall. It didn't change. Nothing's changed. He's come down to build the wall.
What are we going to do? We're going to build the wall? Let me show you something. Keep
this in mind as we go through this chapter. Everything serves
God's purpose. Everything. The old man serves
the new man. And this world, this world serves
our God and it serves us. So, we built the wall, and all
the wall was joined together until the half thereof. Now,
we just read that. How much rubbish had to be moved?
How many stones had to be redone? They built half the wall. You
know how big this wall was? Let me just find my notes. I'll
show you. It was 4.5 square miles, 960
acres. Two and a half meters thick and
40 feet high. They built it. That's the wall.
Yeah. You know why? It tells you. They
had a mind to work. They had a mind. They had a heart
to work. It's work. But look at him go. He's talking about he was desperate.
He'd run the mills of steel and things like that. I used to work
in wood. I used to love, and I still do, take a raw piece
of wood and paw dust. I had an old raw piece of wood,
and you shape it, and you sand it, and you fashion it, and you
make it into something. Can you imagine when they stood
back? Man, look at that. That's the way I was built. Not
one man. They all worked together, because
they had a mind. So you see this, so what is the
enemy doing? They first tried to malk and
make fun, and in verse 7 it says, but it came to pass, that when
Sambalat and Sabine, the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites,
when they heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and
that the breaches began to be stopped, then were they very
wrong. They were bad, now they're even
madder. They're supposed to say, we're
not going to stand by and let this go on. Children, can I tell
you a little secret? We're in a warfare. It's not
always done without, it is within. And Satan wants to just get up
all day just battling, just fighting, just fighting. If you're just
fighting, you're never going to build anything. And that's
what we're going to see. He made the enemy mad. Thank
goodness it makes the enemy mad. I hope it makes him mad. God's
on the throne. Let me remind him again, God's
on the throne. They can't stand it. They can't
stand it. When our Lord came and there
were people that were possessed, they said, did you come to throw
them in there before the time? They were very rough. And so
what did they do? They conspired. We're not ignorant of his devices. They conspired all of them together. It says they gathered together
against the pride, didn't they? Who did? The Romans. The Jews.
Everybody gathered together against him. And I said, we're going
to all gather. We're going to stop this. We're going to hinder
the work. We just want to hinder it. How
are we going to stop? We're just going to conspire. Let me hinder it. Remember when
I made mention last night, when the servant went down to get
Isaac a bride, he goes in. And if you'll notice when you
read that story, when he sees her down there and she draws
all the water for him and for all the camels, he never speaks
a word to her. He doesn't speak the gospel to
her until she gets back in the house. But before he tells his
message, they want him to do something. They said, let's sit
down. He said, I didn't come here to eat. I didn't come here
to eat. I've got an errand. And he told
them the gospel. He told them why he came. He
told them about Abraham. He told them about Isaac. And then she
hears, oh, that's why he came. Oh, that's why I brought that
water. But then the next day, he gets up and he got ready. We're going. We're going back.
I've come and done my errand. This is the work I came to do.
We're going back home. And the family said, well, just
let her stay a few days. You know what? It ain't that
they want her to stay a few days. They want to talk her out of
it. And they said, don't you hinder me. Don't you hinder me. I come to get her. Well, let's
ask her if she wants to go or not. And they called her. They
said, Rebecca, will you go with this man? She said, I'm good. Don't you hinder me. This is
what our Lord said. He said, where were you scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites? For you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men, for you neither go in yourself, neither shepherd
you them that are entering in to go in. That's hindrance. You
don't want to go in, but we don't want anybody else to go in. We're
not going down here to hear the gospel, and we don't want anybody
else to go here either. We don't want to hinder it. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
unto our God. And we set a watch against them,
day and night against them." Do you know what a preacher of
the gospel is? He's a watchman on the law, in animation. What's he looking for? He's looking
for danger. And you know what his responsibility
is? He blows the trumpet, he says,
now watch out, children, there's danger coming. They're going
to come in, they're going to try to hinder it. And listen
to me, they will try to hinder it. Don't think that they can't. Don't think that they won't try.
They will. And how did they do this? Very
subtle. Don't you notice the next sentence?
And Judah. Now, who's Judah? The lion tribe. The lion of the tribe of Judah.
None of us are exempt from this, and Judah said, The strength
of the bearers of burden is decayed. They're just worn out. It's just
so hard. Do you ever get worn out? Do
you ever get physically worn out? Do you ever get spiritually
worn out? He said the strength of the bearers
of burden is decayed and there's so much rubbish. Well, we knew
that when we started, didn't we? But you know what I'm saying? Well, maybe there is just so
much rubbish. You know, I just, I really just don't feel like
going to church today. You felt that one. Let's just
be honest. And so that's what, that's you
to say, well, it's just too much rubbish. It's just, it's too,
it's just too much trouble. It's too much rubbish. And we're not able. We're not
able? I know we're not able. We're
not able to build the wall? He ran around somebody just so
negative. You know, first thing, you know, you're negative. Well,
I'm just saying, yeah, we are. Well, if you're having trouble
with your hip, having trouble with the knees, and as we get
older, we have trouble. And we have spiritual things.
That's life. And our adversary verse 11 said,
They shall not know, they won't see, till we come in the midst
among them, and slay them, and we're going to cause the world.
We're not going to hinder it, we're going to cause it to cease.
We're going to slip in among them. It's not only just something
coming in, it's something in here. Can I remind you of something? If you don't get anything else
out of this one, you get this, the enemy's right in here, you're
looking at him. When you look in the mirror, that's it's him.
Oh, wretched man that I am. That's it. We have to recognize
him as that. And he never improves. You know
what he is? He's lazy. He's slothful. He's
neglectful. He's wanting to make the mess.
I heard Joe Terrell give a good illustration one time. He says,
you've got two men living in one complex. The old man, he
wants to go out and get so trash all over the yard. He wants to
turn the radio up and around all night long, so he can't even
sleep. And you get mad about it. He
ain't going to change. He doesn't have that much work. He just
likes that shit. That's what Ishmael did to Isaac.
He mocked him, didn't he? He said, you ain't going to sleep.
I ain't going to let you sleep. And it came to pass,
verse 12, when the Jews dreamt by them that they said unto us
ten times from all places that ye shall return to us they shall
be upon you. Therefore said I," what's this,
verse 13, "'said I in the lower places,' behind the wall, "'and
in the higher places, I even said to people, after,' you see
those next two words, "'after their families, after their families, "'and their
swords and their spears and their bows. "'And I looked and I rose
up. And I said to the nobles and
to the rulers and to the rest of the people, be not afraid
of them, remember the Lord. Like you said last night, we
don't have anything to be afraid of. What in the world do you
have to be afraid of? Remember the Lord. Remember the
Lord. Remember the Lord which is great
and terrible and fight for your brethren. This is not just about
you. It's about somebody else. And for your sons and for your
daughters and for your wives and for your homes. That's the battle. Sandy's son and his wife have
lived with us since last July. He might hear this, he knows
that's fine. They are just as, probably as liberal as you could
have ever imagined. And it's different when you see
it and hear it somewhere else. But when you see it standing
in your own home, the man says, I don't even believe in God.
And he says, why don't you just strap me dead? You know, things
like this. That's hard to deal with. But
he needs God. Thank God he saved me. You know
what Abraham said about Israel? I wish he would walk before the
Lord. Never give up praying for him. Fight for your family. But on your physical family,
your spiritual family. When one member suffered, all
the members suffered with him. We are in this together, that's
what he's saying. Remember, the world would fight
for your family. And it came to pass when our
enemies, verse 15, heard that it was known unto us, and God
had brought their counsel to naught. And what David said about when
Ahimethel brought his counsel to naught. God's counsel is going
to stand. Their counsel is, we're going
to stop at nothing. Oh, no, you're not. Oh, no, you're
not. He makes it known. How does he
make it known? Well, he makes it known through
his word. Walk in the light of his word. Then we return, all of us, to
the wall. So that makes me think they must
have left it. They returned every one of us.
all of us to the work, to the wall, everyone to his work. You know, God saved you for a
purpose, and God saved you for a reason. He saved you for a
purpose to bring honor and glory to his name, but when he saves
you, he puts you in the body of Christ. You may be just a
little toe. You can't see my toe because
it's inside my shoe, but can the hand say to the toe, I have
no need of thee? Every, every, every member in
that body has a function. Every member. And every one of
us returns to his work. What is your work? Returns everyone to his work. God right now in my life, he's
given me a work in Millside in Cottagefield, West Virginia.
That's my work. And that girl right there, her
job is to help take care of me. That's her work. I'm so glad
she goes with me. Well, you know how we're going
to get to, what's his name's house this evening? John and
Irene. You know how we're going to get
to their house? I'm going to get there by GPS. Because my wife just wrote down
the address and it's Go Places with Sandy. That's the GPS. If I didn't go to her, I can't
find my way around. I don't know how that phone works.
I just said, Sandy, just punch it in. And she said, well, we're
going to go down here and we're going to take a ride. We're going down here and take
a look. You said that don't mean a whole lot. That means a lot
to me. Now the thing about Doris, standing
with that man all these years, that was her work. And we're going to be here till
our work. And it came to pass, from that
time forth, that half of my servants were all in the work, and the
other half of them held both the spear and the shield and
the bow. So what's he saying? It's hard for a man, some of
y'all don't know about a trowel. A trowel is if you're laying
brick or rock, you take a trowel and you put mortar on it, and
you take that mortar and put it between them bricks. You've got
a trowel in this hand. But if you're standing there
troweling brick, take them thought off the enemy. So the thing is,
one man's standing there working, fixing the stump, and that man's
standing there watching him. That man's standing there protecting
him. You may not come standing and preach, but while that man's
preaching, you say, Lord, give me more to die. You see him struggling? Thank God helped him. Lord, he
made it out. And they wrote in the work. And
the rulers were behind all the houses of Judah. Verse 17, They which built on
the wall, and they which bear the burdens, and those that laid
it, every one with his one hand wrote in the work, and then the
other had a weapon. I think it was a newsletter or
something that he had, and you know what the name of it was?
The Sword and the Trowel. How'd he got this? They worked,
they labored, and they watched. And they all walked together
on this wall. Where the builders, everyone
with his sword dirty by his side. And he that founded the company
was by me. And I said to the nobles and
to the rulers and to the rest of the people, the work is great
and large. It's several hours from here
to Cottageville. It's about two-and-a-half hours
from where we are to Katy. It's about two hours from where
we are to where Walter's at. It's about two hours from where
we are to Hurricane Rick. The work is large. That's the
work. It's a long way from here to
Mexico. The work is large. The work is great and large.
And we're separated upon the wall, one far from another. I'm so thankful we have this
time. Really, I mean, this is, this blesses my heart. And we
are separated upon the wall, one far from another. And won't
you see verse 20. You know what that is? That's
the preaching of the glorious gospel. When you hear the sound
of the trumpet. You know, Paul's having a conference. And the trumpet's going to be
blown. When you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither
unto us. Our God shall Whose battle is it? It's his. So he labored in the work, and
half of them held the spear from the rising of the morning until
the stars appeared. Likewise, at the same time said
I to the people, Let every one of them, with his servant, lodge
within Jerusalem, that it is in the night that they may be
guarded to us, labor on the day. So neither I, nor my brethren,
nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me,
none of us put off our clothes, saying that every one of them
put them off for the war. They didn't even change their clothes. They
just lay down and slept in them. That's what it's been. Something
that's more important. I've seen times that come home,
when I used to work for them, they'd say, if I maybe didn't
get home by 11 o'clock, well, I may have to be back there to
shop the fire. I may just sit in the chair and say, I've got
to be back there. Is this any less important? That's what he's saying. I want
to show you. Turn over to chapter 6. Verse 1. It came to pass that
Sambolath and Sabiah and Zershan and Rabban and the rest of our
enemies heard that I had builded the wall and that there was no
breach left therein. So at that time I had not set
up the doors upon the gate. And Sam Barat and Jerusha went
up to me saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages
in the plains of Ornan. But they thought to do me mischief.
And I sent messengers unto them saying, I'm doing a great work,
and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while
I leave it and come down to you? Why did the word cease? Yet they
sent him to me four times. Well, maybe if we tell him again,
maybe he'll come down. And he said, I answered him,
I did the same manner. Did you not hear me the first
time? I'm not coming down to you. I've got something more
important. Anyway, he said, don't waste
my time. Don't you deceive us and we'll
be pleasant. Verse 15 and 16. So the wall was finished. Forty feet high. So big wide. Finished? How did they finish
it? Well, they removed the rubbish,
revived the stones, had heaps of the rubbish and put them exactly
where the stones need to go. It's finished. It's what? It's
finished. What does finished mean? That
means finished. It means it's done. It means it's complete. It means
that there's nothing left to be done. It's done! How long
did it take them? 52 days. Less than a month and
a half. A little over a month and a half. You say, oh, that's impossible.
That which is impossible with men is possible with God. From the day our Lord was buried,
You know how many days that is? That's fifty days. You know what
happened in fifty days? What happened? Our Lord said, it's finished.
Fifty days later, Peter stands and preaches and blows the trumpet,
and God saves three thousand souls. And we're getting revived
to stone at the heaps of the rubbish. And it came to pass, chapter
fifteen, I mean six. it came to pass that when all
the enemies heard thereof, oh yeah, they hear about it. And
all the heathen that were round about, they saw all these things,
they saw it. They could never see it. They
were much cast down in their own eyes, for they perceived They perceive that this work
was wrought by our God, and that's what we want. Who gets the glory? He does, and even the enemy gives
him the glory. God help us to labor on the Lord
for his glory and his honor. I perceived that that message
was of God.