And for each other, Lord, a sacrifice
is made. When we are struggling, Lord,
we feel a different pain. Good hymns, good singing. Nehemiah chapter 3 now. Nehemiah
chapter 3. As we studied last week, the book of Nehemiah concerns
the building of a wall surrounding Jerusalem, a wall. That's what the whole book is
about. And as we saw, this wall represents
the gospel. The wall, which shuts us up to
Christ, was shut up by faith. And it separates us from the
world, the wall. We saw that. Now in this story,
in this story, the beginning of the story was
how the king purposed and provided for the building of this wall. Like Ezra, remember the book
of Ezra, same thing, the building of the temple. King Cyrus, you
remember, purposed it and provided everything for it. Same thing
here. The king purposed and provided
for the building of this wall. And the queen, we noticed, was
with him. She was in this thing. She was with the king in purpose
and in mind. And Nehemiah, this fellow named
Nehemiah, was sent by the king to his own people. He was a man
chosen from among the people. He was one of them. And he was
sent by the king to his own people to call them, to gather them,
and oversee the work. Do you see the picture in all
of that? Who does the king represent? God. Who does the queen represent? Who is with him in purpose? The
Holy Spirit. Who does Nehemiah represent?
Christ. All right, you're with me. All
of this is a picture of our threefold triune God. And Nehemiah was
the principal character in all this stuff. The very book is
named for him. That's significant. Christ is
called the Word. They are they which testify of
him. Christ is the principal one in salvation, isn't it? Unless
Nehemiah had come, unless Nehemiah had come and overseen the work
from start to finish, and he saw the work from the start to
the very finish, unless he'd done that, the wall wouldn't
have been built, and Jerusalem wouldn't be saved. There would
be no salvation for the Jews, but he did, and they were. And unless, the scripture says,
unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build
it. And Christ is called the author
and finisher. Look at, I like this prophecy
here in chapter 2, Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 20. Nehemiah 2, you
ask the Lord to bless this to you, okay? Or I'll just be talking
to myself. I've already got a blessing from
it. Look at verse 20, Nehemiah 2, verse 20. Here's Nehemiah's
prophecy. He answered these gainsayers
and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us. It
sounds like a matter of fact, doesn't it? It is. He says he
will prosper us, therefore we, his servants, will arise and
we will build this wall. God will prosper us, and that's
exactly what the prophecy says concerning the Son of God who
came. It says the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper. in his hands. And he did build
this city. He did establish the gospel. Christ, make no mistake about
it, Christ finished the work that God gave him to do. And
Christ is all in salvation. We saw the other day how that
he had by himself purged our sin. This is all his work. We don't help him save ourselves. Make no mistake about that. Don't
let anybody misinterpret that in this story here. These are
people that have already been called and gathered and saved
and brought. And Nehemiah was over them. They
were under his rule and his direction, all right? We don't help Christ
save us, no. It's all His work. All right? But like in our story now, like
this story here tonight, we're all together, and we read there
in Ephesians, we're all together in this thing, and we're all
here together tonight for one purpose. And we should be. Actually, two
purposes. The chief purpose is to glorify
God. How is the Father glorified? By loving one another. Christ said all the law is fulfilled
in this. Love God and love your neighbor.
And we're all here for the purpose of Jude said, Jude said in verse
20, to build up ourselves on this most holy thing. That's what we're all in this
thing together. If you're taking notes, that's my first point,
first heading. Everybody's in this thing together. None are exempt. All right, look
at chapter 3. This is where we begin. Chapter
3, verse 1. Chapter 3, verse 1. I wish we
were in a Bible study or downstairs. I'd have you read. So make sure
you're with me. But I won't do that. All right? You with me? I know you're tired.
I'm tired. This is good. This is profitable.
It's written for our learning. All right? Chapter 3, verse 1.
It says, Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren
the priests, and they builted the Sheep Gate. The first thing
that was begun was the Sheep Gate. And the priest, the high
priest, is the one that built it. And they sanctified it. and set up the doors of it and
sanctify it. All right? Christ is our high
priest. We've already said that. Nehemiah
represents him. He is our high priest. He's the
builder, all right? He's the author and the finisher.
He's the beginner and the ender of this work of salvation. But
in this thing of building ourselves up, we're all involved, all right?
We all edify one another. That's what we read in Ephesians,
wasn't it? Ephesians 4. How that every part, every joint
supply, every part makes an increase of itself in love. You know what
we said? Know what we read? All right?
And it began with the preacher. That's who this high priest was.
The preacher on down. Everybody was involved. Didn't
stop with him. Everybody was involved. But it
certainly began there, didn't it? And what did he begin? How did he begin? How was the
work? Where was the work begun? What
was begun? What was the first thing that
was built? What does it say there? He built a wall. Why did they
start there? The sheet gate. That's where
the wall would begin. And we're going to see in the
end of this chapter, that's where it ends. That's where it began, and the
whole thing came back around right there. Why? Because that's
Christ, the door of the sheep. And so faith begins and ends
with Christ. Faith centers. The whole work
of the wall revolves around this one game. And all who build better start
right there. Christ said, Paul said, Other
foundations can no man lay than that which is laid. Nehemiah
said, We're going to build this work, we're going to begin this
work at Sheepgate, at the door. We'll start with the door. And
the preacher, you start right there. And everybody else is
going to be connected to that. And when the whole thing ends
up, it's going to end right back where you started. That's the
picture of the preacher of the gospel. around this whole, the
whole work, the whole church is centered around the preaching
of Christ, the door. All right. All right. Look at
verse two. And next unto him, builded the men of Jericho. Verse
four. And next unto them repaired Merima. Verse five. And next unto And
on down, verse seven, and next unto them, verse eight, next
unto them, verse nine, next unto them, and next unto them, and
next unto them, and next unto them, and next unto them. Everybody
was in this thing together. I got such a blessing thinking
about this work. They were all in this thing together.
It was hard work, As anything worth doing is hard
work, requires some toil, some labor, some sacrifice, some effort. But it was wonderful because
everybody was in on it. And it sweetened their sweat.
And it sanctified their blood and their tears and their labor
and all that. They were in on it. Everybody was in on it. Everybody,
there was a few that weren't. Look at verse 5. The last part
of verse 5 says these, next to them, the Ticoites were paired,
but their nobles, they didn't put their names to work. Nobles
didn't join in on it. Why? Because not many wives,
not many nobles are called. Oh, there were some that didn't
say not any. Not many. Look at verse 9. It says, Next
unto them repaired Raphael, the son of her ruler of the half-price.
They were sons, but not many. Nobles. They were called to this
work. All right? And then on and on
it goes. Next unto them. Next unto them.
It says, sons, sons, sons. Were the women involved? Look
at verse 12. Verse 12 says, Next unto him
repaired Shalom the son of Ha-lohesh, the ruler of the half part of
Jerusalem, he and his daughters. They had their work clothes on
and a trowel in their hands. You see, in this work there's
no maimed female. There's no maimed female. They're all in
it together, all equal, all equal. They all builded in this work,
all one on the wall, all one on the wall. So there
were all sorts, men and women, sons and daughters, rich and
poor, young and old, noble and immobile. Verse 8 says, one of
these fellows next unto him repaired Hananiah, the son of one of the
apothecaries, a pharmacist's son. Verse 22, after him repaired
the priests near the plain. They were farmers. Verse 28,
near the priests were repairing. Verse 31, is a goldsmith's son. So you name it. All occupations,
male and female. All shapes and sizes. All sorts
of people. They were all in this thing together. And look at verse thirty two,
and it said, Between the going up of the corner under the sheet
gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants. You see, that's
where it came back to. Talked about all of them in this thing,
and it came back around to verse thirty two, right back to where
they started. And as we say, that's a picture
of the gospel. Now, this whole thing revolves
around Christ, the door of the sheepfold. All right? That's
where we all go in. That's what we're all builded
on, Christ, the stone, the headstone, the gate, the door. All right,
now chapter 4, it says in verse 6, chapter 4, verse 6, "...so
built we, we all together We built the wall, and all the wall
was joined together under the half thereof. That is, it was
laid up about halfway, but it was all joined together from
the one side of the Sheep Gate all the way around the city to
the other side, but it was about halfway up, okay, because every stone
wasn't in the wall yet. But it was all together. They
were all together, and it says, look at verse 6, for the people
had a mind to work. I like that. They had a mind
to work. They were all in this of one
mind and one purpose and of one accord. They wanted to see this
wall go up. And they all joined together
and helped out and so forth, as we should be. What does all
this mean? What's it all about? Why is this
written? Well, these things are written for our learning. And
as I said, this wall represents the gospel. And every one of us have a vested
interest in the gospel. Every one of us have a vested
interest in the gospel, in the church. in everything that pertaineth
to it. We all have work to do in the
church. And he said here that the people
had a mind to work. May God give us a mind to work,
a mind to work. May God make us of one mind and
one accord and join us together, working together, strengthening
one another, just as these people were. And you know, there were
many different tasks. If you go down through there
and read or have read, There are many different tasks in building
this wall. It was a lot of tearing down
to be done. It was cleaning up to be done. Can you imagine what
an undertaking this was? I didn't look it up how far around
that city it was, but it was huge and the wall was high, so
high that the enemies couldn't get in and they couldn't get
out. People couldn't get out. It was
a high wall. It's a thick wall, broad, and it's, and it's wet. It was a huge undertaking. It took a long time. There was
a lot of tearing down, cleaning up. Can you imagine how much
mortar had to be mixed by hand? Can you imagine? You've got to
lay a little block, a little bit. Can you imagine what this
took? Stone is much tougher than block
and brick, much tougher. shaping and sizing and lifting
and stones are heavier. And you imagine all the masons
it took to lay this well, all the laborers it took to bring
the stone to them, to take away the stubble, all the water bearers
to mix the mortar, all the water bearers to give water to the
ones who were building. I'd ask something to drink. Who
was more important, the fellow laying the stone or the fellow
bringing in the water? It didn't matter, did it? Food prepared. Everybody had to eat, didn't
they? Ask the fellow on the wall when
lunchtime hit who was the most important person in the whole
place. Sister Johnson over there or
Brother Bill's helping him too. food prepared, many different
needs, but all the same. And so it is with the church.
Why is this written? Why is this story written? For
Central Baptist Church to show every stone in this building
that we have a part. We being many members, yet a
one body, and we all have a task. It's not a one-man show. Is it? No way. Oh, I'm glad of
that. And it's hard work. Some of it's hard work. And it
was long work. It took years to build this wall.
Years to build this wall. You reckon during the course
of that work, any of them felt like quitting? Huh? You reckon any of them said,
I'm tired today. I don't want to work on that
wall. You reckon? Huh? I'm down in the back. I ain't going to go work on that
wall. You reckon? What do you reckon, the people?
Good, falling out left and right, I bet you. Not showing up. And then the wall, and then the
burden was laid double, twice on others. Well, they exhorted them is what
they did. They went back and exhorted them
and said, Hey, don't depart while it's called today. Be a partaker. Build with us together. Oh, we
need to, as the scripture says, consider one another, provoke
unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembly of
ourselves together as a matter of summing, but exhorting one
another. I know it's hard. I know it's tough. I know you're
tired. I'm tired too. But so much more as you see the
day approaching. Do we have enough faith? Do we
have enough faith? We know all there is to know
about the gospel. I don't. We know in part. We preach in part. We prophesy
in part. Huh? Christ said, when the Son
of Man is come, will he find faith on the earth? Boy, my faith needs strengthening. That's why we're here. That's
why we're here. And that's what we're doing,
by sitting right there. John, that's what you're doing for
that man right over there. Did you work today? Did you work
yesterday? Day before? Okay, you're awesome. You worked today. He worked today. You tired? You tired? He's tired. He's here. You tired? He's tired. He's here. I encourage
you that he's here. He works hard, too. Maybe harder. It's encouragement, you see.
It's encouraging one another so much more as you see today
approaching. One day, when this wall is finished,
buddy, when God Almighty lays the last stone in His church,
calls out the last elect, that's it. I believe the church is going
to go up when they're together. Ed, just like he said, When the disciples of old were
met together and Christ arose, the angel said, He's going to
so come and like Mary, you see, and go. How's that? The people
were met together. Let's just hope this will be
a Wednesday night gathering. This might be our homecoming. Who knows? Huh? It just might. Just mine. All right, it's important.
It's important. Everything, all is vital. Hard
work. Different ministry that Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 12. But everything necessary. And
you know, we're only called to be faithful in a few things,
though. We're only called to be faithful
in a few things. You notice there's so many people
in this building, this wall, that everything wasn't laid on
one person. No one person had to do it all. If he didn't want to, or couldn't,
wasn't able, somebody would pick up a slack, right? Because there
were so many. And it just called to be faithful
in a few things. Whoever was to bring water, just
bring water. Just bring water. Whoever cooked,
whoever laid, whoever mixed, whoever did whatever. That's
all they were called to do. Just do that. Here they are building
the walls. Need some mud. Boy, this is familiar. I used to hear this and I used
to grate on it. I worked for some brick and mason.
Mud in here! I get so mad at hearing them
say that. I'm running my legs off trying to provide them with
mortar, you know. What if mud here? Mud here? Where's my mud man? He took a
day off. He didn't think it was important.
We can't keep all that mud. Huh? That's all necessary. Just
faithful in a few things. Well, I know it's important as
it may seem. You can't lay one stone without
another mortar and lay one stone. Well, let's ask ourselves, what's
the purpose in that? Well, let's ask ourselves, starting
here, what can I do? What do I do for this church? Is that a fair question? That's why this is written. What do I do for this church? What can I do? I'm not talking
about, now the people is, this is the church, the people, but
we live in a house, don't we? Here we are, all of us gathered
together in this nice house. Isn't this a nice house? Nice
house. If we take it for granted, if
it burned down, we'd sure appreciate it. If we had to meet outside,
raining and cold and whatever. We all have a vested interest
here, don't we? It's our house. It's the church, our family.
It's our house. And we all pitch in. We all have
a part. And that's what we should do. Take part and take pride
in it. Treat it better, or at least as as good as we treat
our own houses. And the Scripture says this,
the Scripture says, whatever our hand finds to do, do it with
all our might as unto the Lord. Look over here at chapter 3 in
Nehemiah. I like this, I just stumbled
across it. Look at chapter 3, look at verse
20. It says, After him, Barreth, the son of Zabei, earnestly repaired. Here was a guy over here, this
Barak, was over there. Oh boy, he's working hard. And
he says, lunchtime. Hey Barak, I've been earnestly,
he's serious about this thing. It's important to him. Earnestly, serious about it,
committed to it. Devoted to it. Always about it. Isn't that good? Just a little
word there, earnestly. Out of all those people, says
one fellow, earnestly. All right. They're building a
wall. And it says they built the wall. And look at chapter
four now. Here's some opposition. There's
always opposition. From the very beginning, there
was opposition this way. From within and without. Look
at chapter 4, look at verse 1. It says, It came to pass when
Sanballat heard that we had built a wall, he was wroth and took
great indignation and mocked the Jews. Verse 3, a fellow named
Tobiah and another fellow and others were in on this, were
opposed to the building of the wall. Now, who were these men?
We've already seen that. These men were those mentioned
over in the book of Kings that were inserted, these fellows
inserted into Jerusalem by an evil king. They were put in the midst of
the people by an evil king a long time ago. Isn't that significant? Our Lord said, there must be
heresies among you, tares among the wheat, goats among the sheep.
Isn't that right? Always will be. Always have been.
And these fellows were pretended Jews. They looked good. They
sounded good. They said, we worship the same God you do. But remember
Sam? And they worshiped their own
gods. But they weren't true Jews, they
weren't Jews inwardly, and they opposed the wall, they opposed
the temple, they opposed everything. Troublemakers in the midst of
Israel. Just as our Lord said, there must be tribulation. You
must be through much tribulation to enter the kingdom. And look
at verse 7 and 8. It says they conspired together. It says that, look at verse 8,
they conspired all of them together to come and to fight against
Jerusalem and to hinder it. And Christ said, don't marvel
if the world hates you, if every religion and every denomination
gangs up on you. Don't marvel if you go to work
and ain't nobody there believes like you do, but they all together
gang up against you. Don't marvel at that. Christ
said it would happen. You have cause to worry if they
don't. That's what Christ said. I said,
woe is unto you if men speak well of you, if everybody you
work with and so forth, so he's a good Christian. You're not proclaiming the gospel planned up, because Christ said,
They'll hate you, a man's foe. And he said even a man's foe
shall be those of his own household. It goes, it's the same in our
very houses and families. If our parents, if our children,
if our aunts and uncles and our cousins don't take issue with
our religion, they haven't heard it. Because these fellows represent
that. That's what this is all about. Why is that? Why is that? All right, all right. There was
opposition. Now look at verse 9. Nevertheless, we made our
prayer unto God and set a watch against them day and night because
of them. And as we've studied so many
years now together, that we need to watch and pray, have our eyes
wide open. for the enemy, within and without. All right, verse 10. I heard
a man preach on this one time. The whole message was on this
verse 10. Judah said, strength of the bearers of burdens is
decayed. There's much rubbish. We're not
able to build the walls. Got a bunch of trash around here,
a bunch of rubbish, a bunch of stuff in the way. We can't build
the walls. We've got to clear some of this trash out. You know, this is the hardest
work. You know this, and others have done some building. The
hardest part of building is when you get trash everywhere in it.
Now there comes a time when you've got to stop what you're doing.
You can't make any headway. You've got to clean up, don't
you? Especially now, especially if there was a building, remodeling
is worse. Isn't that the worst? If there
was already a building there, and you got to build a house
on that very spot, and to tear that thing down and clear it
out, it takes And can you imagine, Stan, can
you imagine, there used to be a wall here. And it was torn down. Can you
imagine the tons, the thousands of tons of rubbish that they
had to haul away and clean up? Can you imagine? And it doesn't
say they got the old stone and built with it. That'd be a denial
of the gospel, wouldn't it? I'm going to put an old cloth
in a new garment, or new and low. He builds new. Well, thousands of tons of broken
stone and mortar and wood and hay and stubble everywhere to
be found, hauled away before the building could begin. And
so it is in this thing of preaching the gospel. You know what the hardest part
is in people hearing the gospel? You know what the hardest thing,
the greatest hindrance to people hearing the gospel is? Are you
with me? What's the greatest hindrance
to people hearing the gospel when they come in? Former religion. Wood, hay, and stone. All these
preconceived notions. thoughts, ideas, everything they've
heard from this preacher and that preacher, and all they believe,
the catechisms and the confessions of faith, and what our denomination
says is, and all these translations, and this and that and the other,
there's too much rubbish. We can't build a wall here. This
thing, we're trying to build this faith in Christ alone, the
stone. We've got to clear all this rubbish. And you know, John, we spend
years of our lives sitting here in the gospel, clearing away
all this fog in our hands, don't we? Especially those who came
out of religion. And it's a difficult task. So do you see what a major undertaking
this was? Do you see what a wise master
builder it took? Nehemiah was someone. Rick, what
about this fellow Nehemiah? He know anything? I'm talking Empire State Building. None of these things compare
to this work. And one man, one man oversaw it all. Oh, he was a phenomenal man.
The great man, wise man, wise master builder and architect
and overseer of this building. And so is our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see how everybody was
needed? You see that in that room? You see how everybody was needed?
What a great task it was, how everybody was vital. All right,
what about this little assembly here? I hope nobody approaches it with
this thought, it's not much, just a little church. Man, oh
man. It took the same work by the
Son of God to save a few as it did the millions that have gone
before him. It took the same 33 and
a third year of establishing righteousness, the same cruel
death on the cross, the same work, the same miraculous power
in the Holy Spirit to gather one is as much as one million.
It's a miraculous work. This little building here, this
little work, is a miracle of the grace of God. It takes the
same power to build this little work here, no less than it did
to build Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Spurgeon prayed. It took
the same power to gather in a few as it did many. To clear away
the rubbish from the minds of those who were once Methodists.
And to sit them down and build them on Christ the Son of God.
Same power. Same work of the Holy Spirit. No less. And the
continuance of this thing, people. What's at stake is just as important.
One soul. To build it, to keep it. And
there are many forces, the same forces, that work against this
little group as there is 13th Street Baptist. You say, if that
building fell, if that church fell up there, what a horrible
thing it would be. What a reproach on the gospel. What a cause for the enemies
of Christ to rejoice. Same here, wouldn't it? Same here. And so we're all needy. And therefore,
Nehemiah, according to his wisdom, look at verse thirteen, and I'm
going to close this out. You're going to like this. It
says in verse thirteen, Nehemiah set, therefore set I in the lower
places behind the wall and the higher places, low and high. I set the people after their
families with swords and spears and bows. I wonder where the
old saying is The sword and trial came from this story right here.
This story right here, verse 14, I looked and rose up and
said unto the nobles, to the rulers, the rest of the people,
be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great
and terrible. Remember the Lord. This do and
remembrance of him. Remember the Lord and fight for
your brethren. Your sons. I don't have a son. But your daughters, you've got
a son. That boy needs saving, Steve. I sure hope this place is here,
don't you, a few years from now. You've got a son. I don't have
a son. I'm going to fight for his son. Let these doors stay
open. Let this building stay afloat. This ark's still floating. I
want that boy in this ark, don't you? Fight for your sons and
daughters. Do we have a vested interest
here? You've got a son. You've got a daughter. You've
got a sister. You've got two sisters. Fight. Come to prayer and watchfulness,
whatever you can do. Fight for your son, your wives,
and your houses and everything. Look at verses 16 through 18.
It came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants
wrought in the work, the other half held the spears. You work
a while, I'll pray a while. And I'll pray a while, you work
a while. Takes us all together, doesn't
it? I couldn't preach without somebody to hear and wouldn't
want to attempt it without somebody praying about it. Takes us all. I thought about
You know how many sovereign gracers it takes to change a light bulb? How many have we got in here?
It takes a bunch. It takes us all, right? One to
hold the ladder. Who's more important? Ask the
fellow standing up there who's most important. And what's a man of some Substance
down there holding that ladder. All right. They both half held
the spear and the other wrought in the work. None more important,
none less important. In verse 18, the builders, everyone
had his sword girded by his thigh. Always had his sword strapped
on. What's that? Paul talks about over in Ephesians
6, it's the armor of the Lord, the sword of the Lord. girded
with the truth, the sword, the word of God, always having it
by our side. Huh? Can't do anything ungirded
without the sword. Easy prey. All right? The other
hand held a weapon. The builders, everyone had his
sword girded, and look at this. I'm going to close with these
two verses. Well, no, I'm not. I won't go to the end, but I'm
going It says, Nehemiah said, he that sounded the trumpet was
by me. The other that sounded the trumpet,
in other words, the one that was calling them all to the Word,
Nehemiah said, now he's right here by me. This is a picture of the gospel
preacher. Now look at verse 20 or verse 19. And I said unto
the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people,
the work is great and large and we're all separated upon the
wall, one from another. We all get spread out all over
the place. We're all working in this thing.
We don't have to be assembled here. You know, that's easy to
do when we all get together. It's like spring cleaning or
we have a church supper together and all that. There's a lot of work goes on
when being in the, you know, unseen and lonely work out there. And we don't do to be seen anyway.
But nevertheless, we're all spread out doing whatever our hand finds
to do. It says, they were all separated
upon the wall, one from another. Look at this, verse 20. And in
what place therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet? Resort
then thereunto us. God shall fight for us. You get
separated. You get lonely. You get troubled. You sound all alone. Come on, come on, come back,
join together. Rally the troops. Reveille. Rally the troops. We're here. We're with you. More importantly, God's with
us. Go back and get on the wall.
Huh? That's what it is. All right?
You round it up and Wednesday night, you hear the trumpet,
stop! Okay. Go back to automotive passenger. Get back
on the wall. Go back to the line. Go back
to M&W. You wish to go back to M&W. Where one of your buddies is
working. Or you go there and you work with him. But we're
alone. That's as it is. Very few in here work together.
Any? When you hear the trumpet, resort
thither. That's what this is all about.
I'm blowing the trumpet. Come on now. I know it's tough. I know it's hard. That's why
we're here. That's why we're here. And then
he said in verse 23, look, he said, Verse 22 says, Likewise, at the
same time I said unto the people, Let every one with his servant
lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard
to us, and labor on the day. And neither I, nor our brethren,
nor our servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me,
none of us put off our clothes. We weren't even going to take
our clothes off, save put them off for washing. What's that? Well, you know what that is.
Did you hear the trumpet? Strengthen you to the work? I
hope so. That's what it's all about. That's
why we're here. That's why this was written.
It's just an old story in Jewish history about building an old
stone wall. It's about the gospel. It's about
the church. The laborers together. Members
one of another. You need one another. You've
got a vested interest in this place. Fight for your sons and
daughters and your wives and your brethren. All right. May the Lord bless that. Let's
stand. Our Heavenly Father, again, we
thank you for this blessed privilege, for this gospel, the joyful sound. Those who know the joyful sound,
who've heard that trumpet sound, Oh, how it rallies us and strengthens
us and renews us and revives us. Oh, revive us. As Habakkuk said, revive us in
the midst of the year. The work goes on slowly, but
surely, because our great builder, great master builder, Christ
himself, he said he will protect that which concerns us. It's
the Lord that worketh in us both the will and do of his good pleasure. How we thank you for Christ the
stone and how we thank you for the church of the living God. Thank you for it. Lord bless
each member of it. Strengthen, cement us into this
work. Love is the cement. Blood of Christ is that which
is the water. O Lord, bind us together, we
pray. Don't let us fall off the work
here. Don't let us fall away, but let
us exhort one another so much more as we see the day approaching.
And we pray all these things in the name which is above every
name, the one for whom this was written, by whom, to whom, through
whom, for whom, are all things the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.