Let's open our Bibles to Nehemiah
chapter 2. Now I've told Stan and I've told
several other people that the secret to pronouncing biblical
names is to just spit them out and say them just like you know
what you're doing. And just say it with confidence
so that they would be afraid to disagree with you. That's
the secret to them. But I realize some of them are
tough. I remember one time I was preaching in Cottageville, and
you know the book of Thessalonians? Well, it was written to the church
in Thessalonica. And I kept wanting to say Thessalonians,
and it kept coming out Thessalonikians. And I couldn't get it in my head.
And some smart aleck after the message, he coming out with Thessalonikians,
and he said, are they the ones that wore Nike tennis shoes?
So they must have been. Okay, let's go to Nehemiah chapter
2. Now, the title of the message this evening is found in the
latter verses of this chapter. It's Arise and Build. Arise and
Build. We're working our way to Nehemiah
chapter 3 mainly. I'm going to spend a lot of time
in Nehemiah chapter 3 preaching on the rebuilding of the walls
and the gates of the city of Jerusalem, because each one of
those gates, there are ten gates there, and each one, I believe,
is a spiritual lesson representing the salvation, the whole of salvation
that comes to God's people by His grace through Christ. So
we're working our way there. But now Nehemiah 2 shows how
God worked mightily to put it in Nehemiah's heart, this man
named Nehemiah who was a servant of King Artaxerxes. Now, Artaxerxes was the son of
King Xerxes. You've probably heard of him.
Some of you young people probably studied about him in world history.
But in biblical history, Xerxes was the one who married Esther,
the events of Queen Esther, if you read that in the scriptures.
He was the one. He's sometimes called Ahurus
in the Bible. And that just has to do with
different Hebrew and Babylonian names. So don't get confused
on that. But this man, Artaxerxes, was his son. And so it's understandable
that the Lord would use that event in Esther with this man's
father to give him a heart towards the Jewish people, the people
of Judea. And especially Nehemiah who had
a trusted, a very trusted position in the king's household. He ended
chapter 1 in verse 11 by saying, I was the king's cup bearer.
That was a very important position. Many times the cup bearer had
the king's life in his own hands because he was the one who would
choose and serve the food to the king. He was also an advisor
to the king. So this man, Nehemiah, who was
eventually a prophet of God and who became the governor, essentially,
of Judah and Jerusalem. So it shows how God worked mightily
in His sovereign providence to put it in not only Nehemiah's
heart to desire to go back to Jerusalem and lead in the rebuilding
of that city, the rebuilding of the walls, and how God brought
him to Jerusalem, but also in the heart of this king. Well,
the rebuilding of a wall. Now, what's so important about
a wall? Well, think about a wall this way. Number one, a wall
is a boundary. So it sets the bounds. Now, this
wall, the city of Jerusalem, is representative of heavenly
Jerusalem. The church. And the church has
walls and boundaries. It's separated. In fact, a wall
is for separation. And then thirdly, a wall is for
protection. So that's important. And if this
were speaking only of a physical wall in Jerusalem, the story
really would be worthless to us. But it's speaking spiritually
of Christ's Church, our salvation, and our preservation, and our
provision, and our protection by God's grace in Christ. So
that's the ultimate lesson here. And so this, as we go through,
you'll see a lot of different parallels. Nehemiah himself is
a type of Christ. And any time you look at these
stories or you go down through the histories recorded by the
Holy Spirit through Ezra, who I believe wrote the book of Nehemiah,
you'll see some parallels with the life of our Savior who is
typified by Nehemiah. But now you'll see some things
that are not parallels because there's no type. As Brother Mahan
used to say, no type stands on four legs. You can't make it
fit every little detail. So as you go through these passages
and you're reading passages, don't get hung up on the details.
Don't get hung up on every little thing and say, well, that's got
to mean something, you see. Usually those types are pretty
glaring when it comes out to be a type of Christ. Let me give
you some examples as we read through Nehemiah 2. You know,
Nehemiah 1 introduced us to Nehemiah, an official in the court of this
king of Persia. And Nehemiah, he was a Judean.
He was an Israelite. He was from the tribe of Judah.
He's mentioned, not Nehemiah, but he'd spoken of Zerubbabel,
who was from the tribe of Judah, and then Ezra, who led the second
way back to Israel. Well, this Nehemiah, he met a
group of men from Judah, and he asked them how things were
going back home. That's basically what happened
in chapter 1. How were the Jews doing? And the condition of the
city? And when he got the answer, he
was terribly distressed. He was in sorrow. We read his
prayer last time. Things were terrible back home.
And the Jews were in distress, the city walls were broken down,
the gates of the walls had been burned, and there was no work
being done to rebuild the city. So what did Nehemiah do? He immediately
went to the Lord. He prayed. He prayed. Not only interceding for the
Jews, but also volunteering to be part of the solution. He wanted
God to allow him to go back and lead in the rebuilding of that
city and its gates. And the chapter ended with Nehemiah's
prayer, asking the Lord to grant him success. And he asked specifically
that God would turn the king's heart and cause the king to hear
and be merciful to Nehemiah. So we open in chapter 2, it says
in verse 1, it came to pass in the month of Nisan, In the 20th
year of our desert season, this is about four months later after
Nehemiah's prayer. So we see that Nehemiah waited
on the Lord. He didn't take action himself.
And he says he went to the king. That wine was before him. He
was serving the king wine. He took up the wine, gave it
to the king. And look what it says here. It says, now I had
not been before time sad in his presence. You know, some scholars
say it was forbidden for a servant to be sad in the presence of
the king. Upon threat of death, you know. And somebody says,
well, that sounds a little harsh, but you know how weird those
ancient kings were, you know, so just don't let that bother
you. But he said, I've never before
been sad in the presence of the king. And so he says in verse
two, wherefore, for this reason, the king said unto me, why is
thy countenance sad? He could see it in his face.
Whenever it says countenance, that's what that means. The king
could see it in his face that there was a problem. And apparently
this Nehemiah was close to the king. He was close enough that
the king would even take notice of that. And so he says, why? Why are you sad? Seeing thou
art not sick, you're not physically ill. So he says, there's nothing
else but sorrow of heart. And then he says, then I was
very sore afraid. That sort of tips us off there
that he might have been in danger from being sad before the king.
But the thing about it is, Nehemiah's sadness and burden, it was out
of character for him in the presence of the king, and that's why the
king asked it. And so, I thought about this
quite a bit. I thought about the sorrow of
our Savior. The Bible says specifically in
Isaiah chapter 53 that Christ, our Savior, who Himself was a
servant of the King. You know, many times when you
see prophetic messages in the Old Testament concerning Christ,
He's called the Servant of Jehovah. Now, that's something we can't
hardly grasp because He is Jehovah Himself. His name is Jesus. which
means Jehovah our Savior. He is the Great I Am, and yet
He is the Servant of Jehovah. That speaks of Him as the Second
Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, who was made flesh and
dwelt among us in order to save us from our sins. And it's almost
like He knowing the condition of His people in this world has
fallen in Adam, in ruins, just like the city of Jerusalem, His
own church, you would say. that it caused him sadness of
heart that we can attribute to his humanity to the point that
he was labeled by God through the prophet Isaiah as a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief. He sorrowed for his people. There's
a couple of times in the New Testament in the record of his
earthly life that he wept. He wept at Lazarus' tomb. He
wept over Jerusalem when he said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft
I would have gathered you together as a mama hen gathers her chicks
and you would not." So we see in that sorrow, not despair,
we see in that sorrow His great love wherewith He loved His people. The Bible says in John 13 and
verse 1, He loved His own unto the end. That is, unto the finishing
of the work. And so it is because of the sorrow
of His love that drove Him to the cross. to save His people
from their sins, to right the wrongs, to bear away our sins,
and to rebuild, in essence, by His work on the cross, the spiritual,
heavenly Jerusalem of His church. And we'll look at that in just
a moment. But I see that in Nehemiah's sorrow. He loved his people.
And he was sorrowful. He was afflicted in his very
soul. over the state of Jerusalem and
the city. And he wanted to go back, as
commissioned by the king, just like our Savior was commissioned
in the everlasting covenant of grace by the Father, to come
to this earth and rebuild the city, rebuild the heavenly city,
His church. And remember, he told Peter,
he said, upon this rock I will build my church. So that's just
a great parallel in this story of the history of Nehemiah. Well,
look at verse 3. Here he gives the reason for
his sadness. He says, he said unto the king, let the king live
forever. That was just a common way of showing your devotion
to the king. It'd be like they say in England, long live the
king. And he says, why should not my countenance be sad when
the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, where my fathers
are buried, lieth waste? It's in ruins and the gates thereof
are consumed with fire. Then the king said unto me, For
what dost thou make request? What do you want?" Now notice
what he did first here. He didn't immediately tell the
king what he wanted. The first thing he did, he said,
So I prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah recognized that it was
all in the hands of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And though we know God uses means,
He even uses clay pots like men. to preach the gospel and to pray
for us and even to intercede for us. It is all ultimately
up to the sovereign will of an Almighty God. Isn't that right?
So Nehemiah says, I prayed to God. It doesn't matter what the
king says if this is not the will of God. Isn't that right?
It doesn't matter what the king wants to do or doesn't want to
do, what he decrees or doesn't decree. It's God who is in control. And the king's heart is in the
hands of the Lord. So I prayed to the God of heaven. who is God of God. And I think
about our Savior there praying to His Father in His high priestly
prayer in John chapter 17. Remember, Brother Alan Isom preached
on that a couple of weeks ago. Great, great message where he
showed plainly how everything in our Lord's intercessory prayer
there was in the hands of the Lord and He prayed for His people. Well, verse 5, it says He asked
to go to Jerusalem. He said, I said unto the King,
if it please the King, And if thy servant hath found favour
in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, unto the
city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it." I want
to go back to Jerusalem and build it. So verse 6, it says, and
the king said unto me, the queen also said unto him, for how long
shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? So it pleased
the king to send me, and I said him a time. Now what great parallels
we see there in our Lord's commission to come to earth as commissioned
by the Father. For a set time at a set time
when the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. You know how many times as our Lord walked with the disciples
and He confronted many different people and The Word was beginning
to spread out about Him and who He is. He's the Messiah. He's
the one Son of God. And He would tell them, He said,
My time or My hour has not yet come. And then came that point
in time when it was here. It was time for Him to go to
the cross and He went. And then He told them, He said,
but I've got, I'm going so that I can return unto My Father.
He didn't go to the cross to end up in a grave, in a tomb,
in a sepulcher. The Savior did not die just to
be a martyr, or to be a good example, he died to conquer death. We see, as old John Owen said,
the Puritan, he said, we see in the death of Christ the death
of death. Because he died, he put away
our sins, he was buried, but he arose again the third day,
and he returned unto his father. Here the king says, when are
you going to return? Nehemiah said he set him a time. Well,
the time was set by the Father in glory for the Son to come
to this earth to do His great work and return unto the Father. All the times are set by the
Father. There's a time set that He's
going to return and take His people home to be with Him. Look
at verse 7. Here He asks for letters of safety
and supplies. It says, moreover, I said unto
the king, if it please the king, let letters be given me to the
governors beyond the river. That's the river Euphrates. That
was the dividing line back then. He says, that they may convey
me over till I come unto Judah, and a letter unto Asaph, the
keeper of the king's fort, that he may give me timber to make
beams for the gates of the palace, which appertain to the house,
and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall
enter into. And the King granted me according to the good hand
of my God upon me." Now we see here how Nehemiah recognized
that he needed help. And you know even our Savior,
even though He Himself is God incarnate, He recognized in His
humanity He needed help. He had the help of the Father,
He had the help of His own deity, He had the help of the Holy Spirit,
for the Holy Spirit was given Him without measure. And he prayed
for help. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Remember, he said, Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me. He sweat great drops of blood.
He wasn't failing or giving up or shirking his responsibility
in his mission. He was just showing that in his
human weakness without sin, he needed help. And look at the
last line of chapter 8. It was all according to the good
hand of my God upon me. The King made a decree. I want
you to keep that in mind too. I want to show you something
here that will really, I think, will just show you the glorious
providence of God in Christ and how all this comes together.
But the King made a decree to send Nehemiah back, but it was
all according to the good hand of my God, Nehemiah says. My
God. I think of our Savior when He
prayed unto His Father. for help. I think of Him when
He was on that cross, and for our sins that were charged to
Him, accounted to Him, He was separated from the Father, yet
He still said, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? And
I think of Him in that tomb, when He was raised from the dead
by the Father in the power of the Spirit, He came forth, and
He went to be with His Father. Look at verse 9. He was sent
with an army. It says, Then I came to the governors
beyond the river, and they gave the king's letter. Now the king
had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. That's
how much this king thought of Nehemiah. He says, Now there
were other two men here when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah
the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly.
And there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of
Israel. Apparently these two leaders were against Israel. And they just did not want this
city to be rebuilt. The story is that they wanted
to keep Israel weak and in ruins because they felt they could
keep it in control. So they were upset that there was a man who
had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. So
verse 11, he says, So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three
days. Now, he begins to inspect the
walls of the city. He says, And I rose in the night,
I and some few men with me." It's not spoken here why he did
it at night. We certainly see a parallel here
of the darkness of the world in sin. Our Lord is the light
who came into the darkness. He's the light of the world,
the Scripture says, and that could be significant here. But
he said, I went to inspect the city. And he said, neither told
I any man that my God had put it in my heart to do at Jerusalem.
Neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode
upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even
before the dragon well, that was the name of a particular
well, and to the dung port, that's where they put all the refuse
out, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem." That word viewed
there in this verse and then later on in verse 15 is a medical
term. It's a medical term for probing
a wound. to see the extent of its damage,
like a doctor looking to see the disease so he can find the
cure. And he says, I wanted to view
the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down and the gates
thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of
the fountain. That's probably the pool of Bethesda. Remember,
that's where the man was lying there waiting to be healed. later
on, and to the king's pool. But there was no place for the
beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by
the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered
by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers,
these men who were against him, knew not whether I went or what
I did, neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests,
nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that
did the work." So he inspected the walls, but now comes the
issue. the call to work, the call to
build. Look at verse 17. Then said I unto them, You see
the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem life waits, and
the gates thereof are burned with fire. Here is the command. Come and let us build up the
wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach, that we not
dishonor God any more. Jerusalem had a reputation. It
was known as the City of God. It was known as the City of David,
which in essence, ultimately is the City of the Messiah. And
it was the capital of the nation that was supposed to represent
God before the heathen, that was supposed to honor God and
be a light unto the world and spread His message of grace and
glory through the promised Messiah, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, the God who justifies the ungodly. And yet here it
lies in waste because of the disobedience of its own people.
What a reproach. Nehemiah says, let's build it
back up so it won't be a reproach anymore. Verse 18, he says, Then
I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me. You
see, that's immediately where he goes. He didn't say, fellas,
this was my idea. This is original with me. I'm
going to do it by the best that I've got. No, he said, I told
them of the hand of my God. The hand of God is the power
of God. You see, just like this city
was going to be built, rebuilt by the hand of the power of God,
that's the way salvation is. That's the way the church is
built. It's not built by the wisdom or the cunning Or the
power or the goodness of men is built by the power and wisdom
and goodness of God in Christ. That's how the church is built.
He says, there's also the king's words that he had spoken unto
me, and they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened
their hands for this good work. And this was a good work to rebuild.
Well, the opposition still came. Verse 19, he says, But when Samballon,
the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Gershom
the Arabian, they added another one here, heard it, they laughed
us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing
that you do? Will you rebel against the king? What he's saying there,
they're just ridiculing. And I'll tell you what, when
Christ came to build His church, they ridiculed Him. They accused
Him. They accused his apostles, they
accused his preachers, as we go about as instruments of God's
power, building the church, preaching the gospel throughout the world.
God adds to his church, will always suffer the derision, the
ridicule, the accusations of unbelievers. And they will always
call it, you notice they said, will you rebel against the king?
Him, I wasn't rebelling against the king. And yet they claim
that he was. And that's the way it is with
people who hate the true gospel. They say, you're not doing God's
work, but we are. And so verse 20, He says, Then
answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, He will
prosper us. You see, this is where all the
success of the building of the church comes from. The prosperity
that God gives. Therefore, we, His servants,
will arise and build. But you have no portion, nor
rite, nor memorial in Jerusalem. You see, that's talking about
the difference between God's people who come to faith in Christ
and those who remain in their rebellion. God's people who come
to Christ. Now, I want you to turn to a
couple of scriptures. Turn to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew
chapter 16. Now, Christ is the builder, the
builder of the church. Man is not the builder of the
church in any shape, form, or fashion. But the Lord uses men
in the building of His church. We're His instruments. He's the
builder. He's the wise master builder.
But He uses men in the preaching of the gospel. He uses people
in the witnessing of the gospel. And that's why He says that we're
the light of the world. That's why He says we're to go
into all the world and preach the gospel. Listen to this in
Matthew 16, when He'd ask His disciples, who do men say that
I am? And they gave their answers, but he said, Who do you say that
I am? And Peter spoke up. He says, Thou art the Christ.
You're the Son of the living God. And it says in verse 17
of Matthew 16, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art
thou, Simon bar or son of Jonah. For flesh and blood have not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And
I say unto thee that thou art Peter. That means a little stone.
And upon this rock, that means a big rock, that means like a
rock of Gibraltar, I will build my church. He's not saying, Peter,
I'm going to build my church upon you, as some say. He's saying, Peter, the very
statement that you made, the truth about His Messiahship and
the work that He would do is the rock upon which His church
will be built, Christ Himself. Christ is the rock of the church.
And he said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.
But look at verse 19, and he said, I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, you want to know what the
keys of the kingdom of heaven are? Well, forget about every
cartoon and every joke you've ever heard about Peter standing
at the pearly gates. Just forget about it. That's
not scriptural. I mean, it gets a laugh every now and then, but
it's not scriptural. Peter's not there at the pearly
gates determining who's going to get in and who's not. The
keys to the kingdom of heaven is the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. If you know the gospel, if you
have the gospel in your heart, that great message of hope and
assurance and peace that comes through the blood and the righteousness
of Christ, you have the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Christ
is the door. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And he
said, I'm giving it to you, not just to Peter, but to all of
his witnesses. And he says, And whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
shalt thou loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. In other
words, that key, that gospel you preach, you see, sinners
are either going to believe it or they're going to reject it.
And if they believe it, Whatsoever is bound on earth is bound in
heaven. And whatsoever is loosed on earth
is loosed in heaven. And if they don't believe it,
that's the way it is. Christ the builder of the church.
Now turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Look at Ephesians chapter 2.
Here he's talking about the church. Which mainly, when he refers
in verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2 to the new creation, we are
his workmanship. Verse 10, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works. Now I know a sinner saved by
the grace of God is a new creation in Christ in essence. But here
I believe he's talking mainly about the church, the whole church. And I'll show you why I believe
that. He says, "...which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them." Verse 11, now look
at this, "...wherefore, remember that you being in times past
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that
which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel." You were aliens from the nation of
Israel. You see, the nation Israel was not made up of Gentiles under
that old covenant. You know, there were Gentiles
who could enter in by circumcision and by accepting the law, but
by nature they were aliens. And he says strangers. Now that
word stranger means foreigner. You were foreigners from the
covenant of promise. In other words, you weren't part
of that nation that had the covenant of promise. Having no hope and
without God in the world. But look at verse 13. But now,
In Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ." You're brought in. And he says, "'For
He is our peace, who hath made both one.'" What's both there? Jew and Gentile. He's talking
about God's elect among the Jews and the Gentiles, all who come
to faith in Christ. Now you're not separated by national
barriers. You're not separated by covenant
barriers. But now you're one in Christ
Jesus, and He says, "...and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us." There's no wall now. We're all one nation,
one spiritual nation, spiritual Israel in Christ. "...having
abolished in His flesh," that is, in His humanity, the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinance, "...for
to make in Himself," in Christ, "...of twain," of two, "...one
new man." What is that new man? That's the church. "...so making
peace." And he says, and that he might reconcile both unto
God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity, the
hatred, the division thereby, and came and preached peace to
you which were afar off, and to them that were not." He preached
peace in Christ to both Jew and Gentile. For through him we both,
Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Now therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God."
And listen to the next word, verse 20, "...and are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets." You see, Christ
built the church, but he used his apostles, he used his prophets,
he uses his evangelists, And that foundation of the apostles
and prophets doesn't mean the men themselves, it means the
message of Christ that they preached. And he says Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. What he means by that is that
Christ is the one who holds it all together. We don't. In fact,
you know as well as I do that if Christ didn't hold his church
together, we'd split apart now. That's right. He holds it together. And he says, "...in whom all
the building that he built fitly framed together groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together
for the inhabitation of God through the church." Now, that's what
this passage back here in Nehemiah represents. That's the spiritual
application to Nehemiah chapter 2 and 3. Now, just a few more
minutes, I want you to go back to Nehemiah 2, I want to show
you something. And I know this will bless you.
Back over here in chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, And it came
to pass in the month of Nisan, given a specific time there.
You see that? The specific time that this come
about. Now that month of Nisan, that
would correspond to the months that you and I tonight are really
looking forward to. March and April, especially April.
Because I don't know about you, I'm tired of this cold weather.
That's Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. That is their first month. And
it corresponds with the spring months of March and April. Now,
the significance of that is that is the time of the Passover,
specifically Nisan 14. It's the time of the Passover.
It's the first month of the Hebrew calendar. And, of course, you
know what the Passover represents. It represents Christ, our Passover. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Well, it says that in this time,
in the month of Nisan, that the king, Artaxerxes, issued forth
this decree to send Nehemiah back to rebuild Jerusalem. Now, you've got that in mind?
Go to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. And I want
you to look down at verse 24. Now, I could read this whole
chapter, but I don't have time. So you can read it on your own. But the significance of it is
right here. Remember what it said. Now, that's
when the decree, there was a specific time that that decree was issued. Now, remember I told you that
Daniel was a prophet when Judah The southern kingdom was in captivity
in Babylonia, and what we are going to read here in Daniel
chapter 9 verse 24 was a prophecy that was given 93 years before
Nehemiah chapter 2. 93 years before the decree was
issued. And it says in verse 24, it says,
70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city. Now, I'm not going to give you
a Hebrew math lesson tonight. But weeks in Hebrew doesn't mean
weeks as we think of. We think of a week as seven days.
So don't go up there and start throwing 70 times 7. Weeks are
periods of time. They could even represent a year
prophetically. And I don't want to go into all
that. But what he's talking about is basically, it's about a 490,
480 to 500 year period here. And it goes on. So he says, 70
weeks determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Now listen
to this. To finish the transgression.
That means to, that means to, the transgression, as you know,
is our sin. And it's going to be finished.
Make an end of it, he goes on, he says, to make an end of sins.
You see that? He says, to make reconciliation
for iniquity. You getting the idea now who
he's talking about? His prophecy? He says, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness. There's a time determined, alright?
And he says, and to seal up the vision. Now the vision there
means the prophecy. In other words, everything that's
been prophesied up until that time will be fulfilled in this
finishing the transgression, making an end of sin, and bringing
in everlasting righteousness. And he says to seal up the vision
in prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy. Now, who's the Most
Holy? Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, look at verse 25. He goes
on. He says, "...know therefore and understand..." Now listen
to this. He says, "...that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and build Jerusalem..." From that time, as stated in
Nehemiah chapter 2, "...from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince..." That's
Christ. He's the only one who can finish
transgression, make an end to sin, bring in everlasting righteousness,
seal up the vision and prophecy, and He's the only one who is
the Most Holy who's been anointed. He was anointed at the end of
His work, when He was raised from the dead. And it says, that
shall be seven weeks. Now again, remember, weeks doesn't
mean seven days. And three score and two weeks.
The streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous
times, And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be
cut off." Cut off was a common way of speaking of the death
penalty. And you remember when our Lord
was put on that cross, they looked upon Him as being cursed of God
and deserving of death. He wasn't in Himself. He was
because of our sin imputed to Him. He says, but not for Himself. He's not doing it for Himself.
He did it for His people. He did it for His sheep. He didn't
do this for himself now. He did it for his sheep. And
he said, And the people of the prince that shall come and destroy
the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with
a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Now, I'm not going to go through all this math. But here's what
I'm telling you. Back there in Nehemiah chapter
2, when this decree and command was issued by this man Artaxerxes
to send Nehemiah back, To rebuild Jerusalem is what you might call
the countdown to the Messiah. That's the beginning of the countdown
to the Messiah. And it was approximately about
483 years from that time that our Lord triumphantly entered
into Jerusalem where they waved the palm branches and cried Hosanna
upon the beast, upon the donkey, and that He went to the cross.
To do what? To finish the transgression.
And you know what? He said, to make an end of sins
and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting
righteousness. That city had to be rebuilt.
It had to be. He had to be born in Bethlehem,
the city of David. He had to be taken to Egypt and
brought back to Nazareth and grow up. He had to be brought
to Jerusalem, the city. And that's where he did his great
work for his people. You see how all that ties together?
You see, Nehemiah wasn't going back just to rebuild a town.
He was fulfilling prophecy that was given 93 years before concerning
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Isn't that something? Everything
about our salvation right in its place at the proper time
for the proper purpose to glorify God in the salvation of His people. And what an inspiration for us
as believers to get this gospel out, to arise and even continue
to build as we preach the gospel and as Christ adds to His church
in His good time and according to His good pleasure and power
and His will in all things.