If you will, be turning in your
Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 4. The title of today's message,
as you can see, is Fighting the Finished Fight. And the idea
for this came from a story that's recorded in Nehemiah 4. And as
we proceed today, I think you will see how, just as the characters
in today's story engaged in a fight, you'll see how believers also,
in every generation, engage to fight what, in a sense, can accurately
be described as a finished fight. I'll encourage you to read the
broader context of Nehemiah chapter 4 and even the chapters preceding
it on your own if you have time later. But in the interest of
time, let me set the stage by just summarizing what is taking
place in the first part of Nehemiah 4 and in the chapters prior to
that. As the book of Nehemiah opens,
the wall that's around the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins. It had been previously torn down
and all the gates had been burned. And in the opening chapters of
the book, you discover that under Nehemiah's leadership, the Jews
had begun to rebuild the wall from the ruins and rubble there
in Jerusalem. Now, the enemies in the area
surrounding Jerusalem were at this particular time coexisting
pretty peaceably with the Jews. Apparently, part of their consolation
or comfort came from knowing of the vulnerability of the Jews,
knowing that with no wall around the city to protect them, they
could pretty much take them over anytime they so wanted. And in
Nehemiah 4, as things progress, we'll learn that these enemies
actually then later conspired to stop the building of the wall,
plotting to attack the Jews before they could finish it. Initially,
though, they just mocked the Jews. They presumed or assumed
that the work would probably stop on its own due either to
the scarcity of materials, perhaps the difficulty of working there
among the rubbish and the ruins, and that some of the context
there in the early part of Nehemiah chapter 4 suggests that they
presumed it would be such shoddy workmanship that whatever they
erected would not stand. But as the chapter progresses,
these enemies learn that this work on the wall was actually
proceeding quite successfully. And with that, they became angry.
And so, in hopes of stopping the wall before it became too
formidable for them to breach, they conspired together to mount
a sneak attack and slay the builders in order to prevent the work
from being completed. Well, fortunately or providentially,
there were sympathetic Jews who also lived out in the countryside
surrounding Jerusalem. They were not helping them build
the wall, but apparently they were loyal enough and had enough
concern for their kinsmen that when they got wind of the planned
sneak attack, they provided that intelligence to Nehemiah and
the other Jews building the wall. They went to them and they told
them that whatever direction you turn, they're going to be
attacking you from all sides, so you'll need to be ready and
on guard all the way around the city. And so with that, we're
going to pick up in verse 13 with Nehemiah saying, therefore,
in other words, in light of this intelligence we've received,
Set I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher places.
I even set the people after their families with their swords, their
spears, and their bows. And I looked and rose up and
said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the
people, Be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great
and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and your
daughters, your wives and your houses. And it came to pass when
our enemies heard that it was known unto us, that is, in other
words, they had lost the element of surprise, And God had brought
their counsel, their planned sneak attack, to naught, that
we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. And it came to pass from that
time forth that the half of my servants wrought in the work,
and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields,
and the bows, and the habergens." The habergen was a coat of mail,
like an armor that covered the chest and neck area. And the
rulers were behind all the house of Judah, they which builded
on the wall, and they that bear burdens with those that laid
it. Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and
with the other hand held a weapon. Most commentators I read, they
believe that's not necessarily literal there. In other words,
they didn't just work with one hand, but rather it's indicating
that they all took part, and you'll see that as we go through
the rest of the text here, rotating from standing guard to working,
but always being on guard. As we read in verse 18, he says,
for the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side. He didn't take his sword off.
And so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet
was by me, Nehemiah says. And he goes on and says, I said
unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people,
the work is great and large, and we are separated upon the
wall, one far from another. In what place, therefore, ye
hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us. In
other words, gather around there. And notice he says, our God shall
fight for us, Then he says, So we labored in the work, and half
of them held the spears, from the rising of the morning till
the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time said
I 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 in the day. So neither I, nor my brethren,
nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me,
none of us put off our clothes, saving or except that every one
put them off for washing." Well, as we just read in verse 20,
Nehemiah told his fellow workers, our God shall fight for us. And yet, they took up weapons.
They prepared to engage in the battle, all the while knowing
that if the Almighty, Invincible God, who had delivered them miraculously,
this nation, time and again from their enemies, beginning with
the parting of the Red Sea as they left Egypt, knowing that
He, as He had in so many times in the past, that He would deliver
them if He were fighting for them, the outcome was assured. It was, as people like to say,
it was as good as over. They were engaging, then, to
fight a finished fight, so to speak. Because, you see, there's
no possibility of failure or defeat if God is fighting for
us. As God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar
in Daniel 4 verse 35, all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and
none can stay his hand. Our saying to him, what doest
thou? As God said through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 46 verse
9, remember the former things of old. He's telling them to
remember how I've delivered you time and again. For I am God,
and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure." Now his counsel is his purpose,
contrived by his infinite wisdom, and attended to by his almighty
power. And he says, it shall stand.
And he goes and he mentions in verse 11 how God even uses a
pagan king like King Cyrus. He refers to him as the ravenous
bird from the east. The man that executeth my counsel
from a far country. He had used King Cyrus to deliver
them out of captivity. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I will also
do it. Now, if your God doesn't declare
the end from the beginning, Say what you will, but as we learned
from Isaiah 46, it's not the God of this Bible. He is sovereign. He determines all things, and
He does not lose. As Proverbs 19.21 teaches us,
there are many devices in a man's heart. While we go about working
things this way and that to hopefully get the outcome we so desire,
He says, there are many devices in our hearts, but nevertheless
the counsel of the Lord, His purpose, that shall stand. Now
here, Nehemiah is assuring the people that the Almighty God,
who cannot fail, is going to fight for them. And as such,
the outcome, again, would never be in question. And yet, they
took up arms. Well, what's in this lesson for
us today? And this is what I was impressed
upon as I studied this. I believe we can see in the response
by Nehemiah and his fellow Israelites by their taking up arms an excellent
example pertaining to spiritual Israel called in the Bible the
Israel of God, that is, another chosen people. Not a nation,
such as the Israelites here, who were chosen to bring and
usher through the Messiah, but rather a people chosen unto eternal
salvation, for whom God would deliver them from their enemy,
sin and Satan. And the example is this. The
similarity is that they too, we see from Scripture, are commanded
to and do engage in a spiritual battle. as soldiers of the cross
to fight the, what some may say, as good as finished or even say
finished fight or battle. It's as good as finished for
true believers because their God is fighting for them. As we learn in Romans 8 31, if
God be for us, who can be against us? So if that's true, why do
we do anything in the way of obedience and service and evangelism? The outcome's certain. As the angel told Joseph as the
birth of our Savior approached, he said, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus, Jehovah who saves, for he will make salvation possible. He'll try to save his people
now, for he shall save his people." That's spiritual Israel from
their enemy, from their sins, Matthew 121. Now, I know some of you may already
be surmising the issue I'm bringing to the forefront today. It's
an issue that many people in religion are not confronted with,
some never confronted with. But those who hear the true gospel
of God's sovereign grace typically have to confront this issue.
And I'm speaking of that thing that, that seeming conflict that
confronts us naturally as we try to rationalize the sovereignty
of God, in particular in salvation. As the scripture says, He'll
have mercy on whom He'll have mercy. He'll show compassion
on whom He will. God will save a particular people. So we have the sovereignty of
God and the seeming conflict by our natural minds with the
responsibility of man, the scriptures exhortation to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, to go about doing good works, all of those
things. It usually, the conflict usually
surfaces much like it did in my own mind. I know some of my
earliest thoughts when I first heard God's gospel, had they
found their voice, it would have been a voice of objection that
went something like this. I would have said, if what you're
saying is true, if I don't have anything to do
with attaining or maintaining my salvation, then why should
I do anything? If you're saying that my believing,
my faith, my profession, my response, my obedience, whatever, If you're
telling me they play no determining factor, that they have no causal
role, you say they have a role, but they don't really have anything
to do with my obtaining salvation, or my maintaining my salvation,
I would say, why are you even bothering to preach to me? I'm
either one of them, I'm one of the elect, or I'm not. And I'm
sure there are some who will hear this message even today
and say, that's exactly how I think, because most of us all had to
deal with that consideration. You see, I would say, why don't
you just lay down your arms? Why don't you just shut the door
and go home? If God is sovereign in salvation, as you say, it
doesn't matter what I do. I'm reduced to nothing more than
a mindless robot. And you know, when we voice that,
It's not because any of us believe we're mindless robots. We know
better. We know we think. We make decisions. We know we're rational creatures.
Rather, when we say that, what we're indicating is that in our
spiritual state, We can't comprehend a valid reason why we would go
about doing anything if we don't get something back for it, if
it doesn't merit anything from God. You see, those sentiments
are second nature to us as fallen ungodly sinners who are religious
even, who are proceeding on a way towards heaven that seems right
to us. I mean, that's the way you're
going to go, isn't it? Whatever seems right to you.
And we know, as we often quote from Proverbs, that the way that
seemeth right to a man, though, is the way that ends in death.
And we say that so often, but don't gloss over that. What way
ends in death? We start out on a road that Christ
called the broad road that leads to destruction. And that road
that we start out on seems right to us. And that ends in death. In other words, it doesn't go
to the destination that we imagine. So surely, we say, there's got
to be something I must do. Many say, as I once did, oh,
I believe it's all of Christ. I called Him my Savior. I called
my gospel grace at that time. And yet, I imagine that Jesus
Christ came and lived and died for every man, including the
multitudes who perish. And if some ask me at that time,
what made the difference? I'd say, oh, you have to believe.
And you do have to believe. You're commanded to believe.
You must accept Him and you know you must accept Him. And you
must profess Him. But those words would be voiced suggesting that I must do something. One or more of those things.
Be baptized. attend church, pray, study my
Bible, fill in the blank, whatever. Something that proceeds from
me had to be done in order to be saved. And so once again,
I want to confront you with, that is not salvation by grace,
though we may have called it grace. You see, this is a funny
thing. You know, when I believed a false
gospel before, I called it grace, and I even knew and would say
that that means there's nothing you could earn. You couldn't
earn your salvation. And yet all the while, in blindness,
spiritual darkness, I didn't, I would not acknowledge, did
not acknowledge, did not understand and see that in fact I was saying
I earned it because the Christ I worshiped, He did no more for
those who perish than those who go for heaven, go to heaven.
And so it was something done in me and by me. Oh, I would
minimize it. We talk about Jesus a lot as
Savior. It may seem to play such a small,
small role, but in reality, It was the crowning event that made
all the difference in the world. Now that's not grace. You see,
salvation by God's grace is solely a result. of the satisfaction
made to God's justice that was rendered by the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, as a substitute for His people. It's His merits,
and that alone. It's His righteousness, as it's
called in the Scripture, that is made the sinners by God's
gracious imputation of it to them. That is, the charging of
it to their account. in the same way that he was able
to bear away their sins, God charging or imputing their sins
to his account, so that he died for sins he had no part in producing,
that they might possess a perfect righteousness, to stand before
him holy and acceptable, to be reconciled unto God, a righteousness
they had no part in producing. That's the truth of 2 Corinthians
5.21. So here we are. We know that
the gospel of God's grace proclaims a sure and certain salvation
then for each and every one for whom Christ lived and died. In
other words, we know when He died on the cross and cried out,
it is finished. It really and truly was. A victory
was won there over sin and over Satan. That victory was realized
by His vicarious work. Now that word vicarious, when
we use that word, we're simply saying this. It truly got the
job done for each and every individual whose sins He died for. In other words, this wasn't some
act that was a prerequisite of sorts that just set the stage
or provided some general amnesty. No! He truly died for sin. It was a vicarious work. So,
with that, what motive is there for believers then to obey? Why
do they take up their arms in this battle? Why do we share
the gospel? Do you know not a single one
of God's sheep is going to fail to come to Christ? Not a single
one. If I drop over dead right now
and no one hears the rest of this message, did you know there's
still not going to be any vacancies in heaven? And every seat there
is going to be filled. Why do we witness the gospel
to others when we know the outcome is sure and certain. As Jesus
Christ Himself said in John 6, 37, He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They're going to come to Him.
And Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent
me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. just as sure
as he came out of that grave based upon satisfaction having
been made to God's justice. For righteousness demands life,
just as sin demanded his death. So shall each and every one of
them whom He represented be raised again." You see, that hasn't
happened. We've been raised in each generation
in spiritual life to behold God as He is in the face of Christ.
But there's a resurrection that will take place. We're not in
glory yet, and yet that battle's won. It's sure and certain. Christ
said, I will raise it up at the last day. Well, consider the
battle that we wage. We heard something of that during
the 10 o'clock hour. There's a sense where all believers
are engaged in an internal battle of the flesh and the spirit due
to a remaining sin principle that will plague us until we
leave this body of death, as Paul called it. But you know
that fight, too, is as good as finished. The condemning power
of that sin, even the sins I've yet to commit, It's been removed
by the finished work of Christ for each and every one of his
sheep. And that ensures that in time the presence of sin shall
be removed too for all of them in heaven's glory. But there
is also the battle waged for the truth of the gospel. which
proclaims this finished work of Christ as the sole ground
of a sinner's salvation. And I think that's the battle
Paul was describing in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, when he said, For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. It's not spears
and bows. It's spiritual warfare. He says, but it's mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. That way that seems right to
us. Those places of refuge where we presume to be okay, accepted
by God, that are false refuges. Casting down imaginations is
a battle of the mind, for the minds and hearts and souls of
men. And every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ." Now that fight, likewise, has been finished by what? The
obedience of Christ. His obedience unto death, even
the death of the cross. And yet we, as believers, are
commanded, we're exhorted to engage in this warfare, to declare
and spread the glorious gospel message wherein this obedience,
His righteousness is revealed. Well, apart from God giving spiritual
life in the new birth, we just have a hard time fathoming how
we should do anything in the way of obedience or service to
God unless it's a determining factor in the salvation of a
sinner. We imagine surely there's something
we must do or can do to be found in God's favor to avoid His wrath. And when we imagine that, and
for any who continue to imagine that, it's to insist that by
such a work, and that's what it is, that which proceeds from
us, that a holy God could be reconciled to me, a sinner. And
listen, here's the significance. That's in sharp contradiction
to the truth of Scripture. As we read in Ephesians 2, 8,
By grace are ye saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's not
of works. How's faith of works? Faith is
of works if it makes the difference in your salvation. if it possesses
merit before Holy God. He says, lest any man should
boast. That's not to keep you from boasting. It's to say that there would
be no grounds whatsoever upon which you would have a basis
for boasting. It's of grace. Now right after
having said it's not of work, so look what he says in verse
10. For we are his workmanship though, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. When God ordains something, it's
going to take place. It's His counsel that shall stand.
And He has ordained that believers, His sheep, walk a spiritual walk
of good works. That we fight the finished fight,
so to speak. We talk often how there are only
two religions, grace and works. We know that there are many denominations
and sects in religions around this world, hundreds and thousands
probably. And yet they all fall under those
two subsets of works and grace. It's either you believe that
you will be blessed by your idea of deity, your creator, with
some sort of eternal bliss or blessing after this life based
on something that proceeds from you, something you do, some life
you lead, or it's all outside of yourself and you really are
truly in need of mercy. In other words, it's a work that's
done totally outside of yourself. It's the work of a suitable substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's grace. But according to
our natural way of thinking, we object to the notion that
our standing before God isn't at least affected in some degree
by these actions we take, by our character, by our conduct. And that means we're self-righteous,
meaning we meet the condition of righteousness before a holy
God. And as self-righteous sinners,
then we discover that our primary incentive to obey God would really
be removed if we bought into the idea that I'm purporting
today, the idea of the gospel, that your character, your conduct,
that which proceeds from you has no bearing on your standing
before God. And consider again how that reasoning,
though it will only do so by the light of the gospel and God's
Spirit, you won't see this, but if you can, and I pray you can,
think back on what that, how telling that is. of our former
thoughts, how self-absorbed, consumed with self-love, how
self-righteous it indicates we all are by nature. For it says
from our sinful perspective that, I guess if I'm not going to get
anything for it, why would I do it? You know, that's what, when
we talk about being a mindless robot, we know we're not mindless
robots, as I said. Now, that's to say I can't fathom
any valid reason why I would do the things that I know Scripture
clearly commands me to do. If my obedience has no bearing
upon my acceptance before God, then I'm left with no valid motive.
And you know, that's a pretty reasonable conclusion. in light
of the religion of man that's so pervasive in our day, the
religion of works, which majors on trying to motivate us to sin
less. And we should be motivated to
sin less. But it does so by working upon
our fallen natural feelings of guilt and fear of punishment
and death and the natural mercenary desire for gain and reward. It's the carrot and the stick.
If you will do, you will gain the carrot dangled in front of
you. And if you don't, the stick beating you behind, you'll perish. And so religious folks and pulpits
across this land tell their hearers even today, if you will just
accept Jesus. Invite Him into your heart. Clean
up your life. Get yourself baptized. If you'll
do something, you can make the difference and we latch on to
that. Oh, to remain in control of our
eternal destiny. Oh, that's natural to us. And
unless the truth invades our hearts by God's Spirit under
the sound of the gospel, we'll stay right there. Until God convinces
us of our hopelessness, because of who we are as sinners in need
of a righteousness we can't produce. All of those efforts in religion
are widely respected. But if you'll go and study Romans
7 on your own, you'll see there in verse 5, God calls all those
things that men applaud, He calls them evil and fruit unto death. Consider Luke 16 when He said,
that which is highly esteemed among men. Now, men do not esteem
immorality. They do not esteem stealing and
murder, but they esteem good deeds, outward good deeds. And
how is it that, he says, those things that you esteem, the religions
of the world, how is it that those are an abomination unto
God? Well, it's because of the motive behind those efforts and
actions. Why do any fight the finished
fight? It's because there is a motive.
It's because believers are not left without a valid motive.
Yeah, those motives change. They're no longer legal and mercenary
in hopes of gaining something from God, but rather it's a far
nobler motive that it's replaced with. The believing sinner now
strives to perform many of the same deeds that he did previously,
that the moral loss religionist tries to execute and perform
The only difference is He does so now from a motive of love
and gratitude, grace. He obediently acts, see, not
in order to gain God's favor or remove His disfavor, but from
a new principle of grace. Now what does that mean when
I say from a new principle of grace? It means this, as one
who's standing before God cannot be improved upon. We're talking
about one whose hope is based upon a righteousness imputed,
the impeccable perfection of the Savior. The justified sinner
sees himself as truly one with Christ when God is pleased to
reveal Himself to him under the sound of this Gospel message.
In other words, as the Scripture says, he sees himself as accepted
in the Beloved so that God looks upon him as one with Christ in
the eyes of His law and justice. The scripture calls us unreprovable,
unblameable, holy sinners. Why would you then do anything
in order to gain some favor when you have the perfect work of
a substitute? You can't improve upon it. And
if you do things, if you act in order to be blessed by God,
it shows an absence, you see. It shows that you've yet to be
enlightened to the one thing that will please a holy God.
So born again, sinner discovers that the same efforts to do that
which was right prior to his spiritual conversion, though
they were outwardly praiseworthy among men, he would have been
applauded for those. They were an affront to a holy
God. Because you see, here's why.
They were placed in a position of rivalry, listen, even superiority
over the work of Christ himself, whose perfect righteousness alone
could get the job done and reconcile a sinner before a holy God. And so he sees those efforts
as God sees them, as Hebrews 9 calls them, dead works to be
repented of. Look with me now in Philippians
1. In Paul's letter to the Philippians, in chapter 1, verse 21, he had
said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. In other
words, to die, Paul knew he had, his hope was in the perfect righteousness
of Christ being put to his account. So to die, he had sure and certain
glory, heaven awaiting him. That's gain. But he said to live
as Christ and he goes on in the following verses to talk about
how he's torn between those two things, but he knows that it's
needful for him to stay and minister. That's what it is to live as
Christ. And look with me beginning in verse 27 when he says, only
let your conversation, that means your character and your conduct,
your citizenship, be as it becometh the gospel of grace, the gospel
of Christ, and that is the gospel of grace, based on that finished
work. That whether I come and see you
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand
fast in one spirit with one mind, look, striving together for the
faith of the gospel, engaged in the finished fight. And He
says, just as Nehemiah told them, do not be afraid. He says, and
in nothing terrified by your adversaries. Now it's a finished
fight. Which is to them an evident token
of perdition, destruction, but to you of salvation and that
of God. For unto you it is given, it's a gift, in the behalf of
Christ. Not only the gift of faith, not
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Having
the same conflict, Paul said, which he saw in me, knowing that
it was needful for him to live as Christ. The conflict between
that and knowing that to die was gain. So, first we see here
that it is an evidence of salvation to be about the ministry of the
gospel. To be created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Engaged
in the battle. It's a gift to suffer for his
sake. When Peter and the apostles were cast into prison and then
they were taken before the council of Gamaliel. As they left that
council, in Acts 5 41 we read, and they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. and daily in the temple and in
every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
They preach Christ because it was His righteousness imputed
to them that counted them worthy to suffer. You see, they rejoice
that they're in that side of the battle. You see, we start
out on the other side of that battle. The scripture says we're
all at enmity. We're enemies of God as we're
born into this world in darkness. But to be found on that side
of the battle is to be found worthy worthy to suffer for Him. Worthy, your worthiness based
on the righteousness of Christ put to your account. As we see,
we fight the Finnish fight, first of all, because there is a motive,
a motive of grace and gratitude. And then secondly, what I want
you to see, we fight it because we are engaged in God's ordained
means. So we have a motive, and then
we're engaged in the means. As our sovereign God declares
the end from the beginning, the God that Ephesians 1 11 says,
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. All
things. This means that he not only determines
the outcome, he also has determined the means. Romans 10.14 teaches
us how, it says, how then shall they call on Him in whom they
have not believed, and how shall they believe in Him of whom they
have not heard? You see, this gift of faith is,
it's certainly miraculous, but it's not mystical. Now there,
God uses men and means. Men, they must hear to believe. And he said, all that the Father
giveth me, they're going to come to me. They're going to come
to him in God-given faith. And he says, how shall they hear
without a preacher? First Corinthians 121 says, for
after that in the wisdom of God, that is, as God saw fit, the
world by its wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. That, in the context you'll see
there, it's what the world calls foolishness. It's what the world
says when it says, if I believed what you did, I'd just go home
and there's no need for me to do anything. That's foolishness
to me. He says it's by the foolishness of preaching. It pleased Him
to save them that believe. It's the gospel that we preach,
as Paul described it in Romans 1, 16 and 17, that is the power
of God unto salvation. He uses this gospel, this word
of regeneration. life-giving word. He said, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. There it is
again, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ. That righteousness is that satisfaction
He rendered by His obedience unto death. And so, as we read
in 2 Corinthians 10, in that true gospel ministry, that's
what we're doing. We're engaging to fight the finished
fight, to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and every thought being
brought captive to this, this righteousness, the obedience
of Christ, His finished work. God's sovereign, He's declared
the end from the beginning, but He's also a God who has ordained,
determined the means. Why? You know, we can answer
the... We don't always know why God
does everything, but there is a catch-all answer to everything
that God does, and that is in order that He might achieve His
chief design in all things to glorify Himself. And He makes
known to us that that's what He chooses to do in the hearts
of His people. that they may behold Him as He
is so that He might be worshipped as He is. As both a just God,
holy and just, but a gracious and merciful, loving Savior. And so, what a privilege it is
to be an instrument in obedient service to our Lord. To be engaged
in the very means that He uses to try to save His people? No. the means that He uses to irresistibly,
without fail, draw His sheep to Himself. So consider that
in serving in God's army as a soldier of the cross, so to speak, we
really cannot lose. If we believe the Bible, we know
that this sermon today will have its precise God-directed effect
And we know that any and every sermon that sets forth this same
glorious message of the gospel of God's sovereign grace is going
to redound to His glory. Listen, whether it's in the just
condemnation of those who reject it, or prayerfully and hopefully
graciously in the hearts of those He makes Himself known to, those
who are justified by the blood of Christ. You see, this gospel,
it's edifying to believers. It builds us up because it builds
up our faith. It doesn't build us up. It builds
up Christ. But it builds our faith as it
points us to always. It reminds us over and over again
of the absolute certainty of salvation conditioned on the
one who cannot fail, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thereby,
as we look to the cross, we see how certain and sure it all is,
how Christ is exalted, how He receives all the preeminence,
how God is glorified, how all grounds of boasting are excluded
in me and you, the sinner. Well, in closing, reflecting
back again on our story in Nehemiah 4, remember he said there in
verse 14, be not ye afraid of them, Remember the Lord, which
is great and terrible. That word terrible there means
to be feared and revered. He's awesome. He's mighty. And
then what does he say? And fight for your brethren,
your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
You see, we engage in the ministry, we fight the finished fight.
We do it in part for our loved ones. We do it for anyone we
care about, for we know this is their only hope. We know this
as well. Acknowledging God's sovereignty
and salvation, we know that there's no hope for anyone other than
the objects of His mercy for whom Christ's blood was shed,
to whom His righteousness is imputed. But we don't know who
they are. And the Bible tells us to go
into all the world and preach to every creature. And God is
glorified by that message. We don't know who they are, but
we do know this with a certainty. for God's Word makes it clear
to us, that each and every one of those for whom Christ died,
that He's going to use this Gospel, this Word of Regeneration, the
Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, to call them
unto Himself. And He, as we read in John 6,
He says, all that He gave me, they're going to come to me.
And so we engage in this warfare in part because if we care about
anyone, we really cannot help but do so. Having the love of
God shed abroad in our heart and desiring their like salvation.
And then finally in verse 20, be reminded there in Nehemiah
4 when he said, our God shall fight for us, that the very next
phrase is, so. We labored in the work. And he
goes on and talks about how we worked with our sword by our
side. We took up arms. Why? Because
God is on our side. When God's Spirit convinces us
under the preaching of the gospel of grace of a sin that we're
otherwise oblivious to, a sin that otherwise deceives us, called
in the Bible the deceivableness of unrighteousness, That is,
thinking that anything other than or in addition to Christ's
righteousness alone would find me accepted before God. When
we're convinced by the Spirit, as John 16 teaches us, of righteousness
and of judgment, when we become convinced, I've got to have that,
Nothing else will do for me, for I've been convinced of sin,
of my hopelessness. We become mercy beggars. We must
have that which Christ did. And you know, if you must have
it, it is yours, because none must truly have that. If you have a love of that truth,
if that really must be yours, it is yours, for none can come
to that. We won't have anything to do
with it apart from it having been purchased for us at the
cross of Calvary. You see, no, we don't see God's
sovereignty and salvation as eliminating all valid motives
to obey Him. No, it becomes our motive. This motive of love and gratitude
and grace for His great mercy and grace and having first loved
us. It's because of our justification
in Christ, because He's fought for us, and as such will continue
to bring about all the sure and certain fruits and effects of
His victory at the cross. In each successive generation
even, on to glory, as Christ said, He'll raise them all up.
And it's because of that that we serve the Lord with gladness.
Well, clearly there's a spiritual warfare that takes place in the
respective lives of believers. but it is as a fruit and effect
of a finished fight of Christ's victory on the cross where that
victory was realized for his people. And I want to leave you
with this thought. As we contemplate that a sovereign
God's determination to do something makes it so sure and certain
that we might consider it as good as done, Keep in mind and recognize that
does not negate, it does not diminish, it does not make subordinate
in any way the necessity of His determinate will and purpose
unfolding in time. No, it doesn't negate it, it
ensures it. And listen, knowing that, In
the specific sense of them that I've explained today, believers
in their walk of faith, they can take great comfort and great
joy in knowing they're fighting a finished fight.