Sure as my boots fell by day,
good-bye, I'm proud of thee, good-bye, the power of God in
thee. OK, you will remember. Reading
in the bulletin. Title of this message is the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. Inhabitants of Jerusalem. And. As I have reminded you so often. This book and every book. In
the Old Testament. has a spiritual meaning. It's
not just a book of history concerning the Jews. That's not the principle
or primary story that is here. Christ said to his disciples
when he preached to them from the books of Moses, that's the
first five books, and then the prophets, that's Nehemiah, Ezra,
and all the prophets, and the Psalms, that's the whole Old
Testament. Christ said, they are a deacon of the Old Testament.
They are they which testify of me. So this book and all of these
Old Testament books have a spiritual picture or time of Jesus Christ
and his church and his people and that's what this is all about
that's what we're reading when you read about these Jews what
we just read. We're reading about ourselves
that is believe talking about the church. And we talk about
Jerusalem We, we think about the new Jerusalem. We think about Zion. The scriptures
talks about the kingdom of God. And that, that's future and that's
present. That's the, all the believers
that are in the kingdom. All right? All right, well that's
it. Now the rest of this book, chapters
ten through thirteen, which we're going to go through. Now don't,
don't worry. I'm not going to do like the
apostle Paul and preach all night, and when a fellow fell out of
the window and broke his neck, our windows are shut, and I'm
just going to preach thirty minutes or so. The rest of this book
has to do with these inhabitants of Jerusalem, who they were,
their occupations, and Nehemiah, who is the ruler here and the
one who sets forth the directions for these Jews, or what they
were to do, and so forth. And all this is a picture, like
I said, a picture of Jesus Christ, of the Church of Christ, who
the Church is, what they do, or their vocation. You remember
Paul said, walk worthy of the vocation wherein you are called.
He's not talking about when you work at M.W. or when you work
at the bank, or what he's talking about as a believer. And we're
going to see Christ's rule and his directions to his church.
All right? That's what this is all about.
That's why it was written. That's why it was written. All
right? Who were these persons inhabiting Jerusalem? Do you
remember when we studied how that these Jews were people who
were in captivity? Remember that they were in captivity
in Babylon. And the king. Cyrus the king
made a decree. To release these Jews. And send
them to Jerusalem. Where they would live and worship
in freedom. And he set over them. Nehemiah. Well, no women in the Hamas remember
him. He was a man specially chosen
by the king to lead the Jews. This man was specially chosen
to lead the Jews and to build the temple Remember, the temple
was in ruins and Zerubbabel was chosen to build the temple for
the people to worship in. And then Ezra the scribe, which
the whole book of Ezra is written by. Ezra the scribe was sent
to minister or preach the word to the people. All right? Now,
what's all this picture of? Some of you already saw it. You
were smiling as I was saying that. God's people, by nature, are
in bondage and captivity to sin, to the world, Satan, themselves,
until God decrees that they be set free. And He puts them in
the care of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom He sends,
whom He sent to this earth to accomplish their salvation, to
build His church, to accomplish salvation, to rule over His people. protect them, and also sent the
Holy Spirit, whom Ezra represents, to preach or minister the word
to them. All right, so who are these people?
Look at chapter 10. You see all of those names in
the first 28 verses? We're not going to read them. If you want to, I want one of
you all to come up and read them. They're difficult, to say the
least. Like I said, I'm glad our names aren't Adonijah, Bigbaya,
and Aden, and Hiskijah. I'm glad we have names like one-syllable
names, Stan, Joe, John. Nevertheless, who were these
people? Well, their names were written in the book. Who are these people? Who are
the God's people here? There are those whose names are
written in the book. You see that? Well, what is that?
Well, who are God Almighty's people, true people? Their names
are written in a book. Scripture says it's the Lamb's
book of life which was written before the foundation of the
world. People whom God has chosen and put in a book, the Lamb's
book of life. That's what the Scripture said.
Their names are written in that book. Who are these people? Look at verse 28. It says they
were people of the lands who had separated themselves, their
sons, their daughters, everyone. Look at the last line. Having
knowledge and having understanding. Who were these Jews, these true
Jews? Remember, now, there were some
fake Jews that were living here before they came. You remember
that? Some people who looked like Jews, but weren't. Said
they worshipped God, but they didn't. They had their secret
idols and so forth. You remember that? And then this
king sent these true Jews who separated themselves from all
this idolatrous worship and worshipped the true and living God and worshipped
the way in which God prescribed to worship. Okay? And that's
a picture of true believers too. True believers. And they were
people of understanding. John 645 speaks of God's people,
and he says, and this, our Lord says, they shall all be taught
of God. And every man, or woman, or young
person, who hath heard and learned of the Father, Christ said, cometh
unto me. All of God's people are people
of understanding, of knowledge. They're people who know who God
is. And not this God that men are
preaching and declaring today who just loves everybody so much
and wants to do this and wants to do that and can't because
men won't let him. That's no God at all. And not
this Jesus who came down here and was simply a frustrated martyr
and a dying, helpless man who just lived a good life and just
wanted so bad for somebody to believe on him and didn't really
accomplish anything. No, that's not the Christ of
the Scriptures at all. But the God of the Bible is sovereign,
is just, He does according to His will and purpose, with whom
He will, how He will. The Christ of Scripture came
down with a particular purpose in mind, and that was to save
His people. Whose names were written, He
said, on the palms of His hand, and in that book, and He came
to save those particular people, and He did just that. He didn't
try to, He did it. He saved them, and he said he
sent his Holy Spirit to round them up by the preaching of the
gospel, and they'll all come. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Just like all of these people
that Zerubbabel took with him, they came. They shall all be
taught of God, and everyone that has heard and learned of the
Father, Christ said, cometh unto me. They're people of understanding
and knowledge. Another thing, look at verses
29 through 33. You remember, we looked at this.
Verse twenty-nine says, they were people that claimed to their
brethren. Verse twenty-eight said, they
separated themselves from the people of the lands and claimed
unto their brethren. That is, this is much like marriage. And the Scripture says that a
man or woman leaves their father and mother and cleaves. unto
their husband or wife, right? And those two become one. And
that's the way it is with true believers. True believers, their
true family then becomes God's people. And they are even separated from
their flesh and blood family. That's what Christ said in Matthew
10, didn't it? He said, I've come to set a man
at variance. from his father, a woman at variance
from her mother, and so on and so forth. A mother and a daughter
at variance to make a separation. How? The gospel, the truth, the
truth. It separates, it divides, it
unites us to Christ eternally. But at some time, and well, Right
often it separates and divides very family. That's what Hebrews
means when it talks about the joints in the marrow. Separating
the very joints in the marrow. So these are people that claimed
to their brethren and it says in verse thirty, thirty-two through
thirty-four. Well, we're going to look at
this in a moment. I want to come back to that. They made a covenant
to support the worship. In other words, they wanted to
make sure that blood was going to be offered every time. And they gave the support of
it. Just like those who hear this
gospel and love it, they're going to give and support and make
sure this gospel is preached. All right. All right, look at
Chapter 11 now. Chapter 11. Verse 1, who was it that dwelt
at Jerusalem? Look at verse 1, chapter 11.
It says, the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest
of the people, in other words, the rulers of the people which
were ordained by the king, right? The rulers of the people, those
who had been set in authority, were men who had been ordained
by the king and set back. That's who lived there. Men called by the king and put
back. All right? You got the picture?
Secondly, the rest of the people cast lots to bring one of ten
to dwell in Jerusalem. There are many of the picture
of the standard and probably sixteen. The scripture says the
lot is cast into the lab. And you put the rest of it. But
the whole disposing thereof is a little. The lot of our sixteen
thirty three the lot is cast into the lab. But the whole disposing
thereof is of the law. In other words, men live and
move and do what they do and so forth, but it's God who's
the one who's controlling and purposing and ordaining all things,
and He's doing the deciding, not men. All right, look at the
next thing. It says, one in ten, the lot was cashed. In other
words, they drew straws or however they cashed lots, and one out
of ten was chosen to go dwell in Jerusalem. A remnant. And the scripture says that very
thing. Even at this present time, Romans 11 says this, verse 5,
even at this present time, there remained a remnant according
to the election of bread. A remnant. It's not like the world says
that one out of every two adults in America is a Christian. That's
not so. If that were so, There'd be no
crime, would there? About half of these preachers,
three, four seat preachers would be out of business if that was
so. People wouldn't put up with them. But it's not so. One out of ten was here, and
I believe it's pretty much that way now. Remnant, a remnant. All right, look at the next thing.
It says, verse two, the people blessed all the men that willingly
offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. In other words, the people that
willingly dwelt at Jerusalem were blessed to dwell there.
Brother John, I immediately thought of Psalm 65, verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, whom God chooseth, and causes to approach unto thee.
Nobody's going to be interested in God, interested in Christ,
interested in the gospel. have anything to do with the
things of God, unless God Almighty causes them to do so. Nobody. That's what the psalmist is writing
here. Blessed is the man whom God chooses and causes to approach
unto him, that he may dwell, listen to this, that he may dwell
in his courts. And they'll be satisfied with
the goodness of God's house, even of thy holy temple. And
then I also thought of Psalm 110 verse 3. It says here that
those that willingly offered himself. All right, who's interested
in God, who's interested in Christ? Who are the true Jews? Who are
the true believers? People whom God chooses. And they're willing. They are
willing. They are. They are willing. They, they seek, love Christ. They want to follow him. They
are willing. Why? Psalm 110 verse 3, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy coming. It is God which worketh
in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Right? That's what Scripture says. That's
who they are that dwell at Jerusalem. But a lot of cats, cats, but
all disposings of the Lord, one in ten, but they're willing.
They're willing dwellers that see that. All right. All right. And they were in verse four.
Look here at verse four in Nehemiah 11. And for some of you that
really want to study or that. No, there is only one tribe mentioned
or two tribes mentioned here, you know, the twelve tribes.
Israel. Deborah, you'll know this is
only two tribes mention of these people here in verse four, certain
of the children of Judah and the children of Benjamin. In
other words, the ones who dwell here were came from the surety
and the one nature. Judah and Benjamin, that's a
little Hidden message in there. Go and learn what that means.
Judah, the surety, and Benjamin, the one who was made sure. That's
where they came from. All right, verse 12. Read on
down there. Here's what they did. Here was some of their vocations
there. Nehemiah 11, verse 12. The brethren,
some of the brethren did the work of the house. They worked
on the building itself. You see that? Workers on the
house. Remind me of 1 Corinthians 12
that talks about we be many or one in Christ, many members.
We all have different gifts and so forth and ministries to do
about the Church of God. And many, or some, their actual
work is on the building itself. And we have some here that are
faithful in doing that. Burt down in verse 16, some have
the oversight of the outward business of the house. Workers
on the ground, verse 19, and there were brethren that kept
the gates, doorkeepers, and that's a good location. I'd rather be
a doorkeeper, wouldn't you? A doorkeeper, David said, than
to dwell in the tents of the wicked. All right, chapter 12.
We're going to jump all the way down to chapter 12, because he
gives some names and so forth. Chapter 11. We're not skipping over any of
this because it's unimportant. There's no verse, no line in
God's Word unimportant. If we had the capacity and we
had the time, we could see something wonderful and glorious in every
verse and every line. But we don't have the time or
the capacity. We're going to hit the high spot.
Well, look at verse 1. the record of priest. Now, these
are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel. In case anyone doesn't know,
Zerubbabel here represents the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said,
the one chosen by the king to go and take the people to Jerusalem
and build the temple, he represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
says these priests were men that followed Zerubbabel. Don't you immediately think of
the apostles? Well, so are all those men who are chosen by God
and put in the ministry, right? They're followers of Christ Himself.
They follow Christ Himself. They're chosen by the King and
they follow the King's man or Christ. All right? Verses 2 and
following are several more names, names that could be replaced
with common and familiar names that we know like Maurice. Here's
some here's some priests that went with zero Maurice. Don. Tim. Recognizing Scott. Todd. They could well be replaced with
those names. They follow zero. No, they get
their orders from it. That is, these men are. Preachers
of the Gospel who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. All right?
Down in verse 30 now. I'm making time, Stan. We're
making time. Verse 30. And the priests and
the Levites purified themselves. The priests purified themselves. How did they do that? You don't
purify yourself. You don't make yourself holy
before God. That is the scripture say not
by works of righteousness, which we have done. Doesn't the scripture
say all our righteousnesses are all our attempts at being holy
are filthy rags before God? What does this mean? Well, Peter
said this. Listen to Peter, 1 Peter 1, verse
22. He says, You have purified your
souls in obeying the truth. Believe in the gospel, trusting
Christ as your righteousness that purifies you before God
Almighty, that makes you holy before God Almighty, that and
that only. Trusting Christ, not our works,
not our doings, not our strivings, not our attempts at anything,
but trusting Christ only. That's why he came. That's why
he came. And these priests purified themselves
by trusting Christ Men are saved the same way, now as they were
then, then as they are now. By grace are you saved through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And these men purified themselves,
how? By trusting Christ. And it says
they purified the people. Look at verse 30 again. And they purified the people.
How did they do that? By preaching the truth, by preaching
the same truth. That's what separates. All right,
go on down. There were other people, other
vocations in this, in Jerusalem. Verses 27 and 28, back up there,
it says there were singers. Down in verse 36, musical instruments. Wow, that name down there could
have been Sherry, Jeanette. Right? Singers, Joe, John, and
so on. Singers were appointed. Say,
what can I do? Sing. Look down and see if I
can find it. I didn't write it down. Oh, verse
42. Here it is. Singers, the last
line of verse 42. Singers sang loud. They made joyful noise. They
sang loud. They couldn't. Maybe this is
all they could do, but it was worth doing. And they did it
to the best of their ability. Sang loud. Sang loud. Verse 43. At that day they offered
great sacrifices and rejoiced. God had made them rejoice with
great joy. What day is that? Well, that's
the dedication of the wall and the day of worship and so forth.
And this represents every time we meet together to hear the
gospel. This day is dedicated, whether
it be Sunday or Wednesday or whatever day it is next month,
it's going to be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, dedicated to the one
who built the wall, the Lord Jesus Christ, dedicated to Him,
the builder, the author and finisher of our faith. And when we hear
this, just like these people, we rejoice. We rejoice with great
joy when we hear this gospel. It says at that time there were
some appointed over the chambers for the treasurers. Treasurers
is what they were. Things haven't changed. The church
is the same. Still the same needs. There could
have been a name here. Stan Anderson, treasurer. They
gathered together. Look at what the treasurer did.
Look down at chapter 13, verse 13. You got it? Verse 13 says, I
made treasurers over the treasuries. And it says they were counted
faithful. See that? Zachar, the son of Matanah. They
were counted faithful. Faithful man. And their office
was to build up a great savings account so that we can build
a gymnasium and get our kids up. Is that what it said? Distribute
unto the brethren. The church is not a savings loan. It's a distribution plan. In
one hand, out the other. Right? That's what it's for.
It's distributed to the needs of, to the furtherance of the
gospel, like we, our money goes to preaching the gospel to the
missionaries, and to meet the needs, all for the preaching
of the gospel. That's what it's for. Distribution. All right. When did I start? Doesn't matter. Chapter thirteen, verse one.
Now look at this. This is Bible. On that day, a
day that they had gathered together as was their custom. They gathered together as one.
You remember that? On that day, they read in the
book of Moses in the audience of the people. Every time they
get together, what do they do? What's it all centered around?
What's it all revolved around? We've noticed that haven't we?
Every time. You remember when Nehemiah first
got up, they made a pulpit of wood. First time we heard of
a pulpit was in this book. They made a pulpit of wood for
this purpose, for a man to stand up and read and declare the Word. And you remember that Nehemiah
opened the book in front of everybody and said, now look, this is what
I'm reading. This is not so-and-so's book. This is not a commentary. This is not a private devotion. This is not the philosophy of
this man or that man. This is God's Word. This is all
we do here. This is what everything revolves
around. It's centered on preaching of
the Word, and the Word being a person. the Lord Jesus Christ,
and every time they got together. It was around the word, right?
They open up the book, or if not, it's a it's. Might as well
not me. This might as well be the Lions
Club. For all the good it do, right? This is what we come to hear. And and look at and have got
to teach us from. And this is all we're to do,
not entertain, not carry on religious games,
but read and study and declare the Word, the Word of God. All
right. So they read the book. They read
the book, verses two and three. And it says that they, in verse
one, it was found written that the Ammonite and the Moabite
should not come into the congregation. Because, and there's a reason
for that, and we'll not go back and look at it, verse three says,
when it came to pass, when they heard the law, they separated
from Israel all the mixed multitude. And, you know, there was a time
when the disciples, our Lord told the parables what
it was. He told the parable of wheat
and tares. You remember that? Of wheat and a tare? Our Lord
said in the church there will be weeds and then there will
be tares, or weeds, not true, wheat. He said there will be
goats among the sheep. And our Lord said that some of
the men wanted to go out and pull up the tares. Do you remember
that? He said they wanted to go out, Lord let us go out and
we'll pull up the tares so we'll have only wheat. Now there's
a problem with that. Because they don't know who the
wheat are, for one thing. Some of the tares are easy to
spot, but not all of them. We don't know who the tares are.
A lot of times we might try to pull up wheat. So while we're
not pulling up tares, I'll tell you what will separate. I'll tell you what will separate.
It's the truth. Just declare the truth. Just
stand up. and declare the truth, and God
will do the dividing. He'll do the separating of the
sheep from the goat and the wheat from the tares, right? Tares
and goats won't tolerate the truth very long. That's what
Paul said to Timothy, that they'll turn their ears from the truth
unto fables and go out and find them a teacher to scratch their
ears and scratch their back and tell them what they want to hear. monastery and, you know, separate
ourselves as holier-than-thou more than nothing, but to dwell
in it and amongst it. The truth will separate and divide.
All right? Verse four and five. It says
that before this there was a fellow named Eliashib. Eliashib, the
priest. He was a high priest, Henry.
High priest. This was the highest fellow around
at the time in religion. Having the oversight of the chamber
of God, he was allied unto Tobiah. Stan, this was one of those,
one of these, those fake Jews back there in chapter 10. If
you read back there in chapter 10, or 2, verse 10, it says that
this fellow, Tobiah, he fought against Nehemiah coming in. Though he claimed to be a worshipper
of God and a lover of Jerusalem and the people, when Nehemiah
came to seek out the welfare of the people, it says this guy
fought him. He didn't want him in there. And, oh, this man could represent
many people, couldn't he? Judah, Judas, I mean, Judas Iscariot. And many who despised false preachers
and so forth. And look at this, verse 5. I
wanted you to see this. Verse 5, this high priest prepared
this fellow a great chamber laid in the house of God. The house of God prepared this
Tobiah, this enemy, a great chamber wherein the meat offerings and
so forth were. In other words, he had this guy
a big apartment set up in the temple and was supporting him. All that
goes on in the name of religion. All the unworthy causes that
are supported. All the money that goes here
and goes there to lavish upon this and that and the other.
Nehemiah came. When Nehemiah came, are you with
me? Not much longer, OK? When Nehemiah came, look at verse
6, all this time I wasn't at Jerusalem, he said. In the two
and thirtieth year, though, at appointed time, I came to the
king, and after certain days of tame leave of the king, the
king sent me, and verse seven, I came to Jerusalem and understood
the evil that Elisha did for Tobiah, and prepared him a chamber
in the courts of God. Verse eight, he grieved me sore,
so I kicked him out. I took his furniture and threw
it out in the street. And didn't the Lord Jesus Christ, the first
thing he did when he came into Jerusalem was what? He went into
that temple in the midst of all that religious nonsense, that
circus where they were buying and selling and all this carrying
on, all this games in the name of God and so forth, which was
all a money-making thing. And Christ went in there and
planted a whip and kicked them all out, didn't he? He said,
this house will be called a house of prayer. You've made it a den
of thieves. And isn't that religion today? This is the picture. It doesn't
change. Things don't change. Nehemiah came and he threw this
dude and his buddy and all their goods out in the street. Christ came and cleansed the
temple. And my, my, they were in a mess before Nehemiah came.
Look at verse 16 and 17. There dwelt men of Tyre there. Remember Tyron who had brought
fish and all manner of wear and sold on the Sabbath? And verse
17, Nehemiah said, I contended with the nobles of Judah and
said, what's going on here? You're profaning the Sabbath.
What you're doing here? Remember Christ contended with
those Pharisees and woe unto you scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites. You exact money and tithes and
do all this for the people and you're nothing but a bunch of
thieves. And what this ought to be happening here is preaching
of the gospel, worship of God, and that only. Verses 20 through
21. Look at this. The merchants and
sellers of all kind of wares lodged without Jerusalem once
or twice. They tried to hang around. I
testified against them and said unto them, I lodged you about
the wall. You do it again, I'm going to
lay hands on you. I like this new of mine here.
Don't you? He said, if you don't get out
of here, I'm going to lay hands on you. He didn't mean he was
going to anoint him with oil. He was going to anoint him with
something else. You know, men talk about Jesus
Christ as being poor, pitiful, helpless, weak. Gentle Jesus,
meek and mild. He showed who he was when he
came. Went in single-handedly, cleaned his house, and he's going
to do it again. He's going to do it again. He's
going to lay hands on all this mess. All this mess. My, my. Where's the message in
this mess? Well, look at verse 22. Here's his commands to the Levites,
to the preachers. That they should cleanse themselves,
that they should come and keep the gates, sanctify the Sabbath
day. In other words, these fellows
were to do one thing, to make sure that the worship of God
went on there, nothing else. And that's my job. That's my
job. And look at, I like the last
line there, verse 22, Oh my God, Nehemiah said, Remember me, O
my God, concerning this. Spare me according to the greatness
of thy mercy. God's mercy is in Christ. And then verses 23 through 25,
the people and the children were talking like the rest of the
people. And Nehemiah admonished them.
In other words, they were talking like the world. They sounded
like the people. Look at it. He says, Children spake half
in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews'
language. Verse 25. Verse 25, Nehemiah, I contended
with them, and cursed them, or that is, railed on them, and
smote them, and plucked off their hair. You kids think we're tough
on you. Nehemiah jerked them up by the
hair of their head. Quit talking like these pagans. There's a picture here. I don't
think the word of God is too hard, but don't we tell our children
and us that our language is not the language of the people today.
We saw that in James, didn't we? How we say, the Lord will.
We don't make our plans without saying, the Lord will. We don't
speak in language of luck. and no such thing. If we believe
in sovereign God, we believe he ordains all the things. Chance. Nothing happens by chance. The
whole disposal thereof is of the Lord. Accidents. We purposely try to get these
things out of our vocabulary, right? Accidents. So-and-so had an accident the
other day. Well, you may think it was, but it wasn't. God said in Deuteronomy 32, 39,
I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal, I, the Lord, do all these
things. Right? Accidents. So, you know, let's
not speak like, like the average Joe, Joe, okay? We know better. We speak in the language of our
God and the language of Scripture. Now, I'm not talking about, we
talk like thee and thou, brother, and so forth. You know, you know what I'm saying.
All right, verse 26, he gives dire warnings about a fellow
named Solomon. Who was Solomon? He was man at
his best state, about the best man who ever lived. What did
Solomon say about man at his best state? Altogether vanity. So Nehemiah gives a dire warning
here and reminds them of a fellow named Solomon. He says, remember
now, Solomon was drawn away after other things by other people. And remember
that. Remember that. All right, verse
28. And he says, And one of the sons of Joida, the son of Elisha,
the high priest, was son-in-law to Senboleth the Horenite. And
I chased him out of there. chased him out of the place. He found a snake in the midst. God's men are men. They're not, as Paul said, if
I seek to please men, I'm not serving them. They're not afraid
to say the truth. They're not afraid to tell for
the glory of God and for the good of the people, and they're
not men-pleasers, another word. And verse 28, it says, or verse
29, in closing, remember them, O my God, these enemies of yours,
because they have defiled the priesthood. God will. He's going
to take care of these false preachers. There's so many of them today. God, and I wish He'd take care
of them right away, but He will. He will. And verse, let's close,
verse 30 and 31. Thus cleansed I, and this is
a picture of Christ here. Thus cleansed I them from all
strangers and appointed the wards or the places of the priests
and the Levites, everyone in his business. In other words,
he put everyone in the place he put them and gave them a job
to do. That's Christ and his church.
Verse 31. And for the wood offering at
times appointed For the first fruits, remember me, O my God,
remember me. And didn't Christ tell us that
very thing? As often as you do this, do this
in remembrance of me, till I come. Whenever you gather together,
you preach me, preach Christ, remember me, till I come. Well,
I hope the book of Nehemiah has been a blessing to you. Our Heavenly
Father, we thank you again for the privilege of hearing your
Word, and most especially thank you for an understanding of it, to see Christ in it. You have
opened the eyes of your people to see you in it. and see themselves in it, while
you hide these things quite often from the wise and the prudent
and the unbehaved. It's how we thank You. And we see wondrous things from
Your Word, and we thank You. And we don't pretend to understand
all of it or know all of it. We know in part. We preach in
part. But when that which has come
is perfect, has come, then we'll know, even as we've been known.
But we do thank You for what light You've given us, what understanding.
We ask that You increase that light. We do what we do. We pray, we trust for Your glory,
for Christ's honor and glory. Everything that's said and done,
every message, every song that's sung, everything that goes on,
In this place, we pray, we trust, we believe it is done for your
glory, not for the glory of man, but for the glory of Christ.
And Lord, honor that. We do what we do in remembrance
of thee. Now remember us, we pray, for
good. Open doors to hear this message,
we pray. We thank you for this blessed
book, the book of Nehemiah. all the rest of your holy word
blessed our. Spiritual good in Christ's name
we pray that together.