I'll let you be looking for the
book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah. Nehemiah. Now, as the message
this morning was devoted to and directed at our young people
more than anyone. This message tonight is directed
to the church, to us. This message tonight is directed
to believers, and I prepared it. God is my witness. With no one in particular in
mind, just the Lord laid it upon my heart. In all sincerity, I
say this. I prepared it with fear and trembling
even right now. I've got a knot in my stomach
as I prepare to say the things that are about to be said. But this is a message to the
church, and this is a church. There's
no doubt in my mind that this little assembly of people right
here is a church. No doubt that there are some
true believers here. Right, Joe? I believe that. I
know it. I know it, sir. There's too many
evidences. And the church is God's family. Very simply put, it's God's family.
God's people. His sons. Sons and daughters.
But just like any earthly family, the Church has problems. Always has, always will. Witness
the Churches in the New Testament. Every one of them had problems,
some very severe. Problems from without, the world,
everybody is an enemy to the true Church. Problems from within. The problems from without the
church are to be expected. There's nothing you can do about
it. But the problems from within
are always unexpected, unbelievable, and always avoidable. If every member of the family
was in good spirits or spiritual condition or mature believers
and not weak in the faith, and submissive. If every member of
the family was submissive to the word of God and to one another,
the scriptures talks about submitting one to another in the fear of
the Lord, right? If we were all really and truly
submissive one to another, submitting to God's will for the church,
there wouldn't be any problem. Other than sickness, things like
that, that will come. But here's the scary part. There have always been goats
mixed in with the sheep in the church. There have always been sons of
Baal among the sons of God. There have always been Canaanites,
Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites among the Jews. That's the reason
the Jews suffered so much problem. There have always been false
brethren dwelling with true brethren. Now, nobody knows who they are
usually. Nobody but God, that is. The apostles didn't even
know that Judas was wanted. You remember when they said,
when Christ said, one of you will betray me? And they all
said, who is it, Lord? Nobody suspected Judas. Until,
finally, they go out from us. That it might be made manifest
that they were not all of us. It's a shame. and it's sad when
it happens. I came from a rather large assembly
of people, and I've literally, literally seen thousands of people
come and go in a thirty-some-odd-year period. Sometimes the fruit shows in
false brethren and so forth, yet sometimes problems or whatever,
sometimes they are just true believers that are out of sorts.
Let me say this. In every family, let me say this
by way of introduction to this story here in Nehemiah. In every
family, there is a head. A leader, a guide, an instructor,
a provider. Christ is the head of the church.
He is the head. He is the spiritual head. We
are flesh. And so he sets up fleshly under-shepherds
and under-servants to watch and rule over his flock. Paul said
that in Hebrew. Remember them that have the rule
over you. It has always been, from the Word of God, one man.
One man. Adam. Adam represented the whole
race of man. Then there was Abraham. He represents
the father of the faithful, of all believers. He represents
believers. Then there was Moses. God spoke to Moses. Nobody else. Then there was Samuel. Samuel
was the prophet that he sent to the Jews, to his people. Then
there was David, God's king, David. And in the New Testament
church, there were pastors. He gave some pastors. That's the office that I hold
now. And according to the number of people, the church at Jerusalem
had a lot of people, so they had to set up many elders and
deacons and so forth to take care of all the people's needs.
But if you look and study carefully, every church had one minister.
Timothy was the minister at Ephesus and so forth. But because the
leader is a man, he has a personality, he has
a disposition, of flesh, he has thoughts. And because the people
are men and women, and don't like to be ruled or told what
to do, and this is the way men are, it's the way I am, it's
the way you are, we're all free. Democracy is going to fall someday.
We can't rule ourselves. There has always been, because
of this, because the leader is a man and the people are men
There has been and always will be problems. But God always takes care of
those problems. He always does. He always does. Sometimes at the expense of people. Now, let me give you some examples.
There was Moses and the Jews. And I'm not saying that. This
message is not to vindicate myself or puff up myself, not in any
way, shape, form, or fashion. This is just God's Word. We're
going to see a story here in a little bit. It's words of warning
is what this is. We appear to have a nice little
flock here, a good little fellowship here. But storm clouds brew. They're on the horizon. And a
faithful watchman can see them coming sometimes. And it's his
duty to warn. And it'll happen. To the best
church I've seen, I've seen it. Moses and the Jews. Moses was
called by God. Nobody could have doubted that
if they would have carefully prayed about it and considered
it. Now, Moses was reluctant. Do you remember the story? When
God called Moses, he said, Lord, I can't speak. Don't call me,
call somebody else. And when he told him, no, Moses,
you're the man. Oh, but Lord, send somebody with me. I need
some help. All right then, Aaron. He felt so unworthy, but there
was many proofs of his calling. In the end, it was proven that
Moses was God's definitely called man. And the people were led
by Moses as God led Moses. Moses listened to the Lord and
led the people. He was a faithful and true servant
and leader. Yet there was constant murmuring
and complaining. Even the right-hand man of Moses,
his brother Aaron, his sister Miriam, rose up against him. He was trying to be led. He was listening to the Lord
and trying to do the best of what he could do according to
the wisdom that God gave him. Yet people rose up against him.
They rose up against him. Aaron and Miriam were an evil
alliance. Moses was God's chosen servant. Just as there have been many
evil alliances throughout the scriptures, there was Aaron and
Miriam. There was Nadab and Abihu. There were Korah and his children.
There was Hymenaeus and Alexander in the New Testament. Many evil
alliances. I say this by way of warning.
Don't put any confidence in anybody. Don't put too much trust. Don't
form too close of an alliance with any one particular person.
We're a body here. And this is just a word of warning. I've seen it happen. Some people
feed off of one another in various different ways. Yet God removed
the problem. He took care of the problem.
Because the Jews were his people, and Moses was his servant. to
lead these people. So that's Moses and the Jew.
Then there was Christ and his people. Christ and his people. And Moses represented Christ
in that way. Christ was God's chosen, God's
Messiah, his anointed one. But he wasn't reluctant. He was
willing. He came willingly, sent by the
Father, though, the anointed one. Many proofs, many evidences
of who this was. The Bible, the whole, all the
scriptures testified of him, that this was God's anointed,
his Messiah. He sent him to a particular people,
particular people for particular work to save those people, to
establish a righteousness, to shed his blood on their behalf,
and to take those people always home, all the way home. So he
had, Christ was the leader. of the head of his people, he
came to save and lead his people, a people that God had chosen.
Yet, even in the midst of these people, there were constant murmuring
and complaining. The apostles, his choice men,
his right-hand men. There were evil alliances against
him, too. Satan and the demons. Scribes
and Pharisees got together against him. Herod and Pilate got together. They were evil enemies, archenemies,
and they got together. against Christ and the people
and the rulers, the people who hated the Roman rulers, got together
with him in the end against Christ. And even his right hand man. The scripture says, my own familiar
friend with whom I ate bread has lifted up his hand against
me. Judas. But God took care of that problem.
He removed Because he had a chosen people and Christ was his chosen
head. He had chosen Christ. He exalted
Christ to be the head and had a chosen people in Christ. Then
there's the apostles and the churches. On down the line, the
delegation of representative authority goes. On down the line,
leadership, delegating leadership and authority. And the problems
are still the same. They exist right now even among
this little tiny group of people. Any problem right now with us,
but it will it will happen. So this is a word of warning
to us. Because sin is still sin and
men are still men. And let this message be a fearful
warning to all of us who claim to be members of the church and
this church in particular. This body of believers, let this
be a warning to every single person within my hearing tonight.
That this local church, this is God's church. There's no doubt
in my mind. How about you, Henry? No doubt
in my mind that the gospel is being preached here. This is
the church. This is the church. It is not the perfect church. There are no perfect churches.
Let me read this article to you by Brother Todd Nyberg. Excellent
article. I'm going to probably put it
in a bulletin next week. People are always looking for the ideal
church, and by the ideal church, I suppose they mean that the
church that measures up to their standards as to what a church
should be. We hear things like this. We
need to get back to the New Testament way of doing things. Well, that's
true. But it also must be remembered that the New Testament churches
had many problems. The church at Corinth was full
of scandal, incest, drunkenness at the Lord's table. The churches
at Galatia were so overcome with doctrinal error, Paul was made
to say, I'm in doubt of you. Look at Christ's warnings to
the seven churches in the book of Revelation. He warned them
all. You've got problems, serious problems. Now, what makes this
little church think we're going to be exempt? Now, these were
true churches of Christ. It's true, but they had grievous
problems and errors in them, and the search for the ideal
church will be a fruitless one. Churches are made up of fallible,
sinful men and women. Now, the fact that there is no
such thing as the ideal church does not take away from the fact
that there is a true church. And from that true church are
local churches like we have right here, Central Baptist Church.
The true church is all believers, all of God's leg, all for whom
Christ died. This is the church that Christ
loved and gave himself for. True churches are visible bodies
of believers, small outcroppings of this universal invisible church.
What's the mark of a true church? It's not their stand on baptism
or the Lord's Supper. It's not a supposed historical
succession from another church like the landmark claims. We come from this church, that
church. A church should not be gauged by its attendance, not
the size, number, the kind of activities it has. That's not
it. The mark of a true church is where it stands on the Lord
Jesus Christ, on the gospel. Now, Christ said to Peter, upon this
rock I will build my church. What rock? What did Peter just
say? Christ was referring to Peter's confession of him by
saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Christ said, Upon this rock,
upon this statement of faith, I will build my church and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's our statement
of faith and resort. I say with all the authority
of God's Word, the gates of hell are not going to prevail against
this little sinner. That gives me impetus and courage to continue
on no matter what. Believing the Lord Jesus Christ,
we believe that he alone is all in salvation. Jesus Christ is
the Lord, and salvation is of the Lord. Believing he is the
Son of God, we know he is incapable of failure, that all he died
for must be saved because his character is at stake. The true
Church is the Church that emphasizes Christ and him crucified. If that is present, everything
will be all. If that is present, everything
will be all right. If that is absent, everything,
no matter how seemingly orthodox, will be wrong. Now, I believe with all my heart that
God brought me here to pastor this people. The evidences have
been too many, too many. The door was so clearly open,
just no doubt whatsoever in my mind. Now, I'm not saying that I'm
indispensable. I'm not saying that. God is my witness. I'm
not saying that. I grieved and was burdened over
bringing this message. But I've got to say it like Paul
the Apostle. I'm preaching the one and only gospel. And if any
man preaches any other gospel than what I preach to you, And I've said it many times with
Moses. I've said, Lord, I'm not, I can't
do it, I can't speak. I've said with Solomon, Lord,
you've got to give me the wisdom to lead these people. Every time
somebody comes up and says, I've got a question to ask you, I
go, oh, no. And I start praying to myself, Lord, give me wisdom.
I've said with Jeremiah, Lord, I'm a child, I'm a child, I can't
speak. Yet I'm here. And I'm here to do a job. Now,
let me say this. If I ever become a problem, I'm
praying right now before God Almighty. And you can hold this against
me in that day, if I ever become a problem, I pray right now that
the Lord would remove me from you. I pray that he'll get rid
of me so fast so as not to bring any reproach upon this assembly
of believers, this church. Get rid of me if I'm a problem. If you're a brother, he'll do the same. Now, let me show you from this
book of Nehemiah. You see why I just grieved over
bringing this message? And I say that God is my witness.
Goodness gracious. I've got nobody in mind, no particular
problem in mind at all, but I just, you know, the Lord gives us a I'm sitting down in that study,
praying and looking and watching and hearing and listening and
reading and studying, and the Lord speaks. He warns. The reason
for this message is to warn the church of certain troubles and
problems that could or may be coming. Now, look here in Nehemiah
with me. Look at chapter 1. Now, Nehemiah
was a chosen man of God. He was a chosen servant of God.
No doubt about it, the Lord sent him. Verse 3, they said unto
me, Nehemiah went down to a people. down to Jerusalem, to the men
of Judah, and he felt a burden for these people. And they said
unto him in verse 3, when he went down, the remnant of the
left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction
and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken
down, the gates thereof are burned with fire. The people were in
affliction and great need, and old Nehemiah saw that they had
a need. So he felt a burden for them, and he went down to them.
And it came to pass, Nehemiah said, when I heard these words,
I sat down and wept. I wept and mourned certain days
and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. He had a real
burden. He had a feeling, a genuine burden for these people, and
he asked God to help him. He asked God to help him help
these people, Nehemiah did, help him to restore them and build
the walls of Jerusalem back that were broken down. So in chapter
2, he was sent, throughout chapter 2 he's telling about the journey,
how the king, he was the king's cupbearer, and this king gave
him permission to go back to Jerusalem to help his people. So he came to Jerusalem, look
over chapter 2, verse 12. He came to Jerusalem, and verse
12, that night when he got there, he says, I rose in the night,
he couldn't sleep. He laid in bed the night he got
there, he couldn't sleep. He laid in bed, so he got up,
and he went to the city. He didn't tell anybody, though,
what was his burden. He said, I didn't tell any man what my
God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. But he went down
there anyway, and verse 17, he came to the people, and he said
unto the people, You see the distress that we are in? Then
said I unto them, You see the distress that you are in, how
Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates thereof are burned with
fire? Let's build this wall of Jerusalem, be no more a reproach. And verse 18, he came to the
people, he talked to them, he preached to them. Verse 18, and
I told them of the hand of my God upon me, told them what great
things the Lord had done for me. And he preached the word
of God, the words that the king had spoken unto him. He preached
them to the people. And they heard him. And they
said, let's build this wall together. Nehemiah, you come down here
and you help us, and you'll be our leader, and we'll build this
wall together. All right?" All right, Nehemiah
said. All right, so they strengthened
their hands. They said, let's rise up and build. They strengthened
their hands for this good work. But, verse 19, three fellows didn't
like Nehemiah. They didn't like the people,
and they caused problems. And these fellows are going to
cause problems all the way through this story. Three fellows. They
laughed them to scorn, verse 19, despised us, said, What are
you trying to do? And verse 20. Three fellows. Then answered I them, and said
unto them, Nehemiah said, To God of heaven he'll prosper us.
If he's in this thing, he'll prosper us. Therefore, we his
servants will arise and build. But he said, if you're not going
to be with us, you've got no portion. You've got no right. He that gathers not with us,
scattereth abroad, right? He that's not with us, 100 percent
behind us, holding up our hands in this work. He's scattering.
He's creating problems. And these three fellows were,
and Nehemiah warned them. Faithful servants said, now, if you have
no right, no portion, no memorial in Jerusalem unless you're with
us in this thing, So they start building, and everybody
got in on it. Everybody got in, young and old,
rich, poor, black, white, weak, strong. Everybody got in on this
building business. They got in on it. Different
jobs for different people according to what they could do. Some little,
some big. Some jobs little, some big jobs.
But they all got together. They all found something they
could do, and they pitched in and worked together to build
this wall together. One common goal. common goal,
to build a wall, build back the walls and the gates of Jerusalem,
God's city. And the Church, this little body
right here, are members one of another, many members, young,
old, rich, poor, well, mostly poor, of every constitution, weak,
strong, yet we're in this thing together. We're in this thing
together, building up one another in our most holy faith, the scripture
said. What are we doing here? What's
our goal here? What's the purpose for me together? Build the wall. What's that wall? To glorify
our God. To raise up our God in his gospel
just as high as we can. Raise up the standard. Exalt
our God to the stars before this generation. To glorify God, to
worship God, and to help one another to see and come to know
Christ. and be saved. We're building up one another
by supporting the gospel, spreading the gospel, the honor of Christ,
and the good of the people. But, chapter 4, look over here,
chapter 4. The people got together. All
of chapter 3 is talking about them building. This man did this,
this man did that, this woman did this, this woman did that.
They all were busy building, busy building. All in it together,
one goal, build the walls up. But, chapter 4, verse 1, it came
to pass, the same fellas, start trouble again, the same
fellas, verse 1, when Sen-Baletz, that's his name, heard that we
builded the wall, he was mad and he took indignation and mocked
the Jews. And down in verse 3, that other
fella was with him, Tobiah the Ammonite, he was with him, he
said, Even that which we build, we're going to tear it down."
They were mean, and they mocked these people. These two fellows
tried to cause strife and division. That's what they were doing,
trying to stir up the people. Well, you know what Nehemiah
did? He did what the apostles said
in the New Testament. He says, If any man cause strife
and division among you, he told this to young Timothy, I believe
it was. Mark him. You know what he said? Look at verse 4. He said, Here,
O our God, we are despised. He's talking about these fellows,
and he said, Turn their reproach upon their own head. We're just
trying to build a wall here. Make them leave us alone. They're troubling those who are
trying to work. They're troubling them. And these two fellows,
I want you to notice this. Listen to this. Boy, if this
is not going to convict you, this is going to convict every
one of us. These two fellows weren't working.
They were idle. They weren't doing a blessed
thing. Brother Danny Blair, I talked to him on the phone the other
day. He's made a tape here recently, and his tapes are very contemporary
sounding. They have a modern flavor to
them. But I know this man like my own soul. I love him like
my own soul, like David and Jonathan did one another. I love him like
my love for him passes the love of a man. I know him like my
own heart. I know his motive. I know his
heart is in the music that he writes. He's got the glory of
God and the good of the people in his mind. But he said he's
experiencing some criticism. And he said to me, he said, you
know, Paul, he said, it's always people that don't do anything. The people that don't do anything
are the ones that's criticizing me. Here I am trying to do something. No matter how weak and frail
and how failing and fallible it may be and full of whatever,
I'm trying. And I've noticed this, I've seen
this, I've seen it. People that don't give very much
to the work are always the ones that complain about the way the
money's been spent. I'll give you an illustration.
A fellow went to church with his family, came out of the church
service. And he was just saying, what
a lousy son of a... Boy, I tell you, that preacher, I tell you,
he just... Do you hear how he said shibboleth? But he said
he's not much of a preacher. I tell you, I'd do a better job
than that. I should have been a... And his little boy said
to him, said, well, Dad, he said, well, that was a pretty good
show for a quarter, though, wasn't it? Pretty good show for a quarter. Look at verse 6 with me here
in chapter 4. Look at verse 6. So we built the wall. So built
we the wall, and all the wall was joined together, about half
of it. The people had a mind to work. Thank God. The people had a mind. They were
of one mind and one accord, the Scripture said in Acts, all the
way through the book of Acts. One mind and one accord. One
accord. One mind in prayer to God. Build a wall. Build a church.
Glorify God. Know Christ. Win Christ. Be found
in Him. Help one another to win Christ and be found in him. Help
the preacher preach the gospel. Hold up his hand. Help one another
out. Yet these two fellas persisted. Verse 9, look at it. Verse 9,
chapter 4. Nevertheless, we made our prayer
unto God and set a watch against them day and night because of
them. Everybody knew these fellas and they were careful about them
and prayed. Yet Christ says to us, Now this, nothing's going
on in particular right now, but yet Christ says to us, if it
happens. And he says over in 1 Corinthians
11, that there must be heresies among you, that they which are
approved might be manifest. Right? There must be problems
that come up in the church, that they which are true believers
might be made manifest. True, solid believer. And nothing's going on right
now, but If it does, if anything happens,
Christ says to us, pray for them. We're in this time of grace.
Christ says, pray for them that despitefully use you. And them
that are weak, the scripture says, you that are strong, bear
the infirmities of the weak. If a brethren be overtaken in
a fault or a sister, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,
realizing it could be you. So if somebody does fall here
or whatever, Restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. Look at verse 10 now. Verse 10 of chapter 4. So,
and Judah said, Judah came running. Significant old Judah. He came
running. He said, now the strength of
the bearers of burden is decayed. They're having problems down
here on the west gate. There's much rubbish. We can't
build the wall. There's a lot of garbage going
on around here. A lot of garbage spread out everywhere. We can't
get the wall built. A lot of trouble. I wrote this
down. Wood, hay, and stubble. And this
happens in the church. A lot of fleshly notions. Why? Because I think. A lot of matters
of opinion. I don't know, but this is the
way I think. Rubbish! Get rid of it. We can't build
the wall this way. And our adversaries, verse 11,
they're crying, they're creeping in. They're creeping in on us.
They're going to get in here and cause the work to cease.
And what did happen? They said, we can't build a wall. They can't build a wall. Verse
12, look at the Jews came. The Jews, it came to pass when
the Jews which dwelt by them, they came down and said, everywhere
you turn, you've got problems. You've got problems. And the
work stopped. There was a little end, problems here, garbage here
and there. And the work stopped. It stopped. So Nehemiah, being
a true and a faithful watchman, he saw the problems. He saw it. He saw it before it became a
big problem. And he said this. Look at verse 13. He did this.
Verse 13. He said, In lower places behind
the wall, on the higher places set the people after their family
with their sword and their spear and their bows. And he did this. He did that. He was, according
to the wisdom that God gave him, he did what he felt led to do. Now, listen. I'm sure there were
people who disagreed with old Niggamire. I'm sure people thought,
I don't like the way he did that. I don't like that at all. I'm sure there were people that
disagreed with him. I'm sure of it. I'm sure he made
mistakes. Nevertheless, according to the
wisdom that God gave him, he acted, at least he tried to do
something. Now verse 14, and he said, I looked and rose up
and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest
of the people, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Be not afraid. Let's get back to work. Remember the Lord, which is great
and terrible. God is sovereign. Remember the
Lord who is great and terrible. And fight for your brethren,
your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. Remember
the Lord. God is sovereign no matter what
takes place. Continue to preach the gospel.
Preach the sovereignty of God, the lordship of Christ, our desperate
need of his righteousness and his shed blood and so forth.
And we're his people. We're his church. And fight for
your family. Fight for your family, for your
sons and your daughters and one another. And I say unto you,
The same thing. God is our God. We are his people. And this is his church. And we
need this place. Desperately need this place. Go someplace else. If you don't
see how desperately you need it, try going someplace else.
You'll see. You'll see. We desperately need this place.
We need to fight for it. Don't we? We need to fight for
one another. You fight for this man? You fight for that piano player,
that song leader? She played a sire note, and she did while
ago. Everybody in here, I heard it, Jerry. I'm not going to fire
you. I couldn't do it. I couldn't play it. I don't think
anybody else in here can either. I need her. Sire notes and all.
Joe, Joe, you can't sing a lick, can you? I can't either. I'm
sure glad we got Joe. But here I'm, Joe, he walks out.
Good job. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate
it. Hold up your hands. Thank you. And I can't preach. Goodness gracious. For the likes
of Henry Mahan and Scott Rich and all these fellows out there,
I can't preach. But I'm trying. Hold up my hands
in prayer. Please don't criticize me. I
don't think you do. I really don't believe anybody in here
does that. But we need one another. We need to fight for it. Satan,
you know what Satan's all about. You know what he does? This is
his plot. This is his ploy. Create problems. Stir them up. Things are going
just, you're trying, you preach the gospel and build up one another. And he works enemies in where
the wall's broken down. A weakness in the wall. Work
something in there. Get him in there. Subversive
activity. Stir them up. Cause problems and all. We need
to fight, don't we? Well, look at this. This is beautiful.
This is beautiful. Now, when the enemies, verse
15, when it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was
known to us that their gal and so forth wasn't, he wasn't fooling
us, and God brought their counsel to nothing, then we returned,
all of us, to the wall. Everybody went back to work.
I don't pay attention to them. Let's get back to work. Let's
get back to the job at hand. Worshipping God, they went back
to work. Well, look, like I said, this is Satan's ploy to break
up assemblies by infighting and so forth. But if we set to work
preaching the gospel and worshipping God, it'll all come to naught.
No matter what happens, it'll come to nothing. God will take
care of it if we just preach the gospel. Verse 16, And it
came to pass from that time forth. Look at this. This is beautiful.
From that time forth, half of the servants wrought into work,
and the other half held the spears." Joe, you're going to be up here,
and you're going to have a trial in your hand, singing a song.
And I'm back there with a spear. Don't anybody say anything about
Joe and his thing. I've got a spear here, praying
for you, buddy. I'm going to say a word. Sing! Let him refuse to sing who never
knew our God, the song says. And, Joe, I'm up here with a
trial now, buddy. You'd be my bouncer? I don't think we need
one. But half had swords and half
had trials. That's where that magazine, that's
where it came from, Sword and Trial. Half of them at the work
and the other half guarding. Oh, my soul. My soul. Now, listen to this. If you can't
work, Virgie, she said to me, I can't clean the church, I'm
too old. She's over here sitting the other day folding bulletins.
Man, what a job. Takes such a long time. Such
a monotonous, boring job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of this
church, thank you. Appreciate it. If you can't work, though,
you can pray, can't you? You pray for us? Be a buddy.
I know you do. If you can't preach, you can
sing, can't you? Just as loud as you can sing. If you can't
lead, you can follow. Those that are following Christ,
Look at verse 16 again. The half had the spears, and
the half were working shields and bows and aborigines, whatever
that is, and a ruler. They were all behind the house. Everybody was behind one another
at this time. Verse 17, They which build it
on the wall, they that bear the burdens, those that laid it.
You know, you can bear burdens, can't you? Oh yeah, you can't
do anything. You can bear burdens. We've all
got a weapon, the sword of God's Word in our hand. Everyone with
one of his hands wrought in the work and the other hand held
a weapon. Well, verse 19, look at it. I
said unto the nobles and to the rulers, the rest of the people,
the work is great and large, it's big, and we're separated
upon the wall, one from another, one far from another. That's
this rural church. That's the picture of this rural church.
We're separated here and there. Some over here in Farram, and
some all the way over in Boons Mill, and some in wherever, Henry. Some all over the place, separated. One over here, one over there.
Look at verse 20. But in what place do you hear the sound of
the trumpet? Resort thither unto us, and God will fight for us."
Now, you hear the trumpet sound Sunday morning, if you come down
with us, and we'll do thee good. You hear that gospel trumpet
blowing, Christ and Him crucified. You resort thither unto us, and
God will fight for us. You've come by with us. You'll
be here at every possible opportunity when the trumpet sounds, whenever
the gospel is preached here. And let us come into this house
and gather in his name to worship him, Christ the Lord. And if
you come together in his name, where two or three are gathered
in his name to worship him, that reason only, then you'll be blessed
and this church will be blessed. And the gates of hell will not
prevail. And God will fight for us. And if we don't fight for us,
God will fight against us. He will remove us. Me or you. And they continued, verse 21,
until the stars came out. And we'll continue until that
day star arrives. A son of righteousness arrives
with healing in his way. We'll continue. But, oh boy,
verse chapter 5, they had more problems. And this time it wasn't
those same fellows. It was everybody became a problem. And that's us. Every one of us
has come in here with a sour disposition or whatever. We've
come in here and caused problems. Yes, we have. I have. I apologize. I've come up in this pulpit mad
at somebody or mad at myself or mad at my wife or somebody.
Selling, downcast, whatever, nobody likes me, and this and
that and the other, and take it out on you and my preachers.
We'll all be a problem. If we stay here long enough,
we'll be a problem. We sure will. And verse 6, look at verse 6.
Chapter 5, they were all bickering and complaining, and Nehemiah
got mad. So I was angry when I heard their
words and these words. Now look down at verse 9. Look
at this. And he said, It's not good what you're doing. Ought
you not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach
of the enemy? Shouldn't we just be fearing
God and worshiping him? Don't we have better things to
do? Isn't there an enemy out there to fight than to fight
one another? That's what he's saying. And you got something
better to do than to picket this person or that person, your brother,
your sister? And you've got a beam in your
own eye, Christ said. Why are you trying to remove
a toothpick out of somebody else? It happens, doesn't it? We're
all guilty of this. That's what Nehemiah got mad. He said, don't
you, we're going to be a reproach? Or we're going to be a witness?
A witness. Well, well, the wall was finished down
at 15, verse 15. The wall was finished, verse
16. They continued in the work of the wall, and they finished
it. Oh, chapter 6 is where it is.
Chapter 6. Chapter 6, verse 15 and 16. The wall was finished,
and it came to pass. Look at this. This is great.
And all the enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were
about us saw these things. And there's nothing that this
community would like better than to see this thing fold up. They
hate this gospel. But when they saw it, they saw
these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes,
and they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. God must be in that. God goes in it. And I believe
God's in this church. Do you believe that? Yeah, I
do. I do. I believe this is his church. And I want to help you and me and our children to—I want to help you build up
your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our knowledge of him, to know
that we might know him and the power of his resurrection. I've just in word only been in
power. I want you to really know the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm just
a professional. I want everybody in this room, everybody, to know Christ. And God forgive me, we have this
treasure and it's in earthen vessels. I'm just a pitiful vessel. But I didn't ask for this job.
And Joe says the same. Everybody here says the same
thing. But we're in this thing together, aren't we? We need
one another. We need one another's prayers
and support and love. By this shall all men know you,
my disciples, if you ever love one to another. Let's ask yourself, am I helping
or hindering the work?