You would be opening your Bible
to the book of 1 Peter. I've entitled the message, The Purpose for Suffering. I'm going to be looking at some
in chapter five, but I wanted to go back. I think it's in chapter
four. Let's see if I can find the verse. Yeah. Verse 17. 1 Peter 4, 17 for the time is come
that judgment must begin at the house of God. We know that we
don't live in fear of judgment. When Christ died upon the tree
that he bore the judgment and the wrath of God in our stead,
and he put away sin. I think that has reference to
trials for the time has come that judgment must begin at the
house of God. And if it first begin at us,
what shall the end be of those that obey not the gospel? of
God. I hope I have a message for the
Lord's people and it's a word of comfort. But I pray that we
have a word from our Father to those who don't know our Lord,
who do not obey the gospel of our God. And if the righteous,
those that God has made righteous, scarcely be saved. Now that doesn't
say that we're just going to get through on the skin of our
teeth. It's with difficulty. If the righteous scarcely be
saved, it's a miracle that God saved us. It's a miracle that
he's saving us. And it's going to be a miracle
when he delivers us from this world. And it's through difficulty. We live in a world of sin all
the way around us, and as you prayed, sin in us, sin on the
outside of us, and all that is is sin. And it's going to be
a miracle. But if the righteous scarcely
be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear before
God, who has no righteousness, who stands in his own strength
and in his own wisdom? Wherefore, let them that suffer
according to the will of God, and it always is according to
God's sovereign will. Some people have the misunderstanding
and misconception that the Christian life, after you believe, is a
bed of roses. Everything was fine in Abraham's
house as long as Ishmael was the only boy in the house. For
13 years, I believe, that's how long he lived there. till Isaac
was born, the promise seed, the heir, then that's when trouble
started. And when God shows you mercy,
now there's a new man and there's still an old man. But remember
this, you remember this, that old man serves the new man. And you remember this, this world
and everything in it serves our God and it serves you. Everything
in it. Not part of it. Everything. Everything. Let him that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls
to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Now let's begin reading in chapter
5. Let's begin reading in verse
6, 1 Peter 5. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
casting all your cares, all your concerns upon Him, for He careth for you. Children
of God, God careth for you. We want to carry our cares, we
want to think and to dwell upon these things, but cast our cares
upon him. He careth for you. Be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all
grace, who has called us into eternal glory by Christ Jesus
after that you have suffered a while. Make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. Establish, strengthen, settle
you. Peter could speak from experience. He knew something of facing this
enemy. that walks about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. Our Lord told Simon in Luke chapter
27, I mean 22 verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
like wheat. He didn't say, I'm not going
to let him. He said, but I prayed for you.
You know that's humbling, that God would pray for you. He said, but I prayed for you
that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. That word converted doesn't mean
it's when he was born again. He was already a believer because
this man said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. That
means when you're restored, to strengthen your brethren. He
wrote this book inspired of God, this book, 1 Peter, and what
does he tell us? Humble yourselves. What happened
to Peter? He got proud. Did the Lord humble him? Sure he did. And you know what
we see? God used that believer and humbled
him to strengthen us. We always, we talk about Peter.
We always go back to Peter. We look at Peter and we go, yeah,
that's us. That's us. And he said unto him, Lord, I'm
ready to go with thee. I'm ready to go with you both
to prison and to death. And he said, I tell you, Peter,
The cock shall not crow this day, this day won't be over before
you're gonna three times, you're gonna deny that you even know
me. Did that really happen? It sure
did. It sure did. He sifted him okay. That's for
sure. But I love it when he denied
him, the Lord just turned and looked at him. and broke his
heart. You know why? He cares for Peter.
He cares for him. Our faith, it must be tried. It will be tried. Turn back to
chapter 1 verse 6. wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness, through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, you love.
in whom now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your soul." Trials come from many, many ways. Now the word temptation here
does not mean a temptation to sin. It means trials, just like
I said when Peter was sifted, he was tried, he was tempted
and he failed. It means difficulties in life,
reproaches from unbelievers in this world, the trials of riches
or poverty, sickness or sorrow or trials, trials of success
or failure, trials of disappointment, Sometimes the trials are unpleasant. Most of the time that's how we
think of them, to the flesh. But not always. Some of the worst trials is when
he allows us to prosper. Really, prosper. It's hard for us to take any
praise. I mean, it's hard for us to receive it without getting
proud. Peter spoke a lot about it. Pride.
Cast your cares. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God that he may exalt you in due season. I mean, your
pastor was talking today, and it must have been Henry who said
it, we can become proud of face, proud of race, and even proud
of grace. I remember when I first learned
a few doctrines, we're going to straighten everybody out.
You know what that was? It was a trial. God
showing us that we're nothing. It's not doctrine that saves,
it's Christ that saves. It's not faith that saves, it's
Christ who saves. He's the object of our faith
and that faith that He gave you. The faith you have, God gave
you, and he will cry that faith. He will prove that faith. God
knows what kind of faith we have, whether it's strong or weak faith.
He knows, but we don't know. Our computer said, Lord, I won't
know. Everybody else may, but not me,
not me. God has a reason for every trial,
every affliction, that He brings upon our lives because, as I've
said here several times tonight, He careth for you. He cares too much to leave you
alone. He cares too much. Let me give
you a few things about faith. Faith is tried to reveal if it's
genuine or not. Listen, do I really believe God? Am I really resting my soul upon
the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I really? Make your calling
and election sure. Is that not Peter that said that? He knows what is genuine. I told
someone years ago, the church I used to pastor in North Carolina,
I said, you know, we say that we believe in God's sovereign.
Just wait. Just wait when something comes
upon you, you hadn't been expecting, and hits you blindsided. And
you go, what just happened? He reveals our faith, or the
lack of it. Faith is tried to reveal the
value of our faith. We need to be reminded of how
frail we are. I need faith. I need faith, in
fact, today, which, what does God have me to preach tonight?
I need faith, Lord, this is, I feel like this is what you've
laid on my heart. We're so prone to wonder, prone to wonder. And it's valuable. It's more
precious than gold, it perishes. Precious, precious, so precious,
that's how precious. Faith that is tried enables us
to comfort others who are going through sufferings. I can tell
you something. I've just thoroughly enjoyed
the last day and a half to spend with your pastor. I'm telling
you. Such a comfort. You know why?
He's sharing with me things he's went through. And I think, oh,
I didn't think anybody went through some of those things. Isn't that
how we feel? Listen. Look in 2 Corinthians
1, I'll show you this, verse 3. Why do we go through trials? To comfort others. It's not just
about us. Blessed be the God, 2 Corinthians
1.3, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,
and watch this, the God of all comfort. We looked at here in
verse 10, he's the God of all grace, and there he is, the God
of all comfort. Who comforteth us in all our
tribulations, that we might be able to comfort them which are
in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted."
Don't you really, when you walk up to someone and they've lost
somebody and say, I wished I knew what to say. He comforts you
and you can say, I understand. I don't understand exactly but
I've been through something similar and just let me tell you what
the Lord did. He comforted my heart and I pray
God would comfort your heart. He sent it for a reason. We might
not see it now, but it is for a reason. It's for a reason. Our attitude, what should be
our attitude toward trials? Well, nobody has as bad as I
do. No, he said, Peter said, 1 Peter, I mean, I know by inspiration,
1 Peter 1.6, wherein you greatly rejoice. Though now for a season,
if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. James 1.2, my brethren, count
it all joy. When you fall into divers temptations,
nobody enjoys pain. Here's what it says in Hebrews
12.11, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, Nobody
enjoys pain, nobody enjoys suffering, and nobody enjoys seeing anyone
else suffer. No chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but it's grievous. Nevertheless, nevertheless,
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby. You know what it is? You know
what joy is? It's the fruit of righteousness. The fruit. Where'd that joy come from? Well,
it sure wasn't a product of the flesh. I can sure tell you that.
You want to see an example? Job. The Lord gave. And the Lord had taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Only grace can do that. That's
that. It's too long. And you think about it, God recorded
that for us. We reach over and go, man, look
what he went through, look what he went through. And he said,
I've seen you far off. I've heard of you far off, now
I've seen you. And I hate myself. And what that is, that's faith. And that's the attitude. He showed
him who he was. How long are we? How long are
our sufferings? 1 Peter 1.6 says for a season.
2 Corinthians 4.17, for our lot of afflictions, but which are
but for a moment. And here in our verses, verse
10, it says for a while. We was talking about how many
years it's been since we met each other. That's just been
a little while. And just another little while,
we'll be gone. So it's just a little while. It's just a little while. And
it'll all be over. And we suffer as long as the Lord sees fit. I want us to look at verse 10.
After you've suffered a while, Make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. What does that mean, make us
perfect? Now we know our Lord in God's
sight, as I said last night, he has made us perfect. God doesn't call something justified
and righteous when it's not justified or righteous. He's made you in
His sight. You are accepted in the blood. You are righteous. You are perfect. You are standing before God says
not guilty. There's no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. But, He is making us perfect. I wished when the Lord gave me
a new nature that he totally eradicated the old nature, but
he didn't. And he didn't for a reason. Like
I said, when you think about it, the old man serving the new
man, Esau served Jacob. It served Him. We said, well,
Jacob had to spend 400 years in Egypt. Now look at Esau. He's
got all of his dukes and kings and all this stuff. They're still
serving Jacob. And your old man drives you to
Christ. I said that someone said, oh,
they just didn't agree with that. Well, what does that old nature
do? He serves God. Gets up and, you know, he wants
to say, well, look how humble you are. And then you get humble, and
then you get proud, and then you fall on your face. And then
you beg to God for mercy, or like Peter, you go out and weep
bitterly. That old man served the new man. We are growing in grace. Now don't miss this. Anything
that is alive grows. We were saved, as I've already
mentioned. We are saved and we are being
saved. In this world, our Lord through
trials is making us perfect. He will win you. He will humble
you. He is making you. We can all
quote Romans 8.28. Let's read verses 28 and 29. And we know that all things work
together for good. to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, forelove, he did predestinate to be the conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
He's gonna make you just like his darling son. And everything
he sends is for that purpose. You say, we're not like Christ.
I know we're not. But he's gonna make you like
Christ. He is making you like Christ.
And one day, one day when we die and this old flesh just drops
off, we're gonna be clothed with a new body. And we're gonna see
him as he is. And we're gonna be like him.
We're gonna be like him as he is. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, and that's
where it's at. Not on you, but a good work in
you. will perform it until the day
of Christ Jesus. He never begins a work and can't
finish it. He said, you count the cost.
He didn't begin to build a building and say, well, I didn't take
that into consideration. I didn't take into consideration
they're going to change the code. So I've got to go back and change
something. And I just don't have enough
funds or the strength or the power or the foreknowledge to
see that coming. So it just caught me off guard.
Oh, no. David served his generation,
and we live in this generation. And he's going to make us like him. It's a work. It's his work. And it's a work. When he made the world, it was
a work. He said it's finished, and it's all good. And one day,
he's going to be finished with you. Finished. Finished. He will never leave
the work half done. He will finish the work. His
desire and his goal, his purpose is to make you perfect. Now what
does that mean to be made perfect? I thought about this today when
we was in that old mill. It means to put you in complete
joint as the timbers of a building. If you've never been over to
the old mill, go over there. Those beams are about this big
square. And they go up and in this, there's
a notch cut in them and they fit perfectly. You imagine when those men put
those, they don't have the tools like we have today. We've got
a whole lot more different tools. I do have power tools. I have a battery operated drill. They didn't have those things.
And they made it, and it's amazing. I used to do countertops, so
I'd go in some real high-end houses, and they were timber
frame houses, and it was just gorgeous. But to see how everything
had to fit perfectly. You know where he fits, he fits
right here, he fits perfectly. Perfectly, he's gonna make you
perfect. He's gonna make you perfect.
He don't put a square peg in a round hole, he puts a round
peg in a round hole. You know how they hold those
beams together? With pegs. There's a mortise
and a tenon, there's a hole cut, and this slides right in here,
and then they drill a hole and drive a wooden peg in there.
That's what, that holds that together, oh yeah! Because it
fits together perfectly. When it fits together perfectly,
everything leans upon each other. And everything we're going to
get in a minute rests upon the foundation. He's going to make you perfect. Perfect. Listen in Psalms 108
verse 3. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. What concerns you? There's a
lot of things that just concern you. And He's going to perfect
that which concerns you. By mercy, O Lord, endureth forever.
Forsake not the work of Thine own hands." The psalmist told
the Lord, Lord, don't forsake Your work. Lord, don't forsake
Your work. Then in Hebrews 13 verse 20 and
21, now the God of peace, we've seen the God of comfort, we've
seen the God of grace, and here we see the God of peace. that
brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ, the great
shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, the next three words, make you perfect. In every good work to do his
will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Working in you. in you. Our attitudes, our desires, working. Working. Making us. Making us what? Look to Him!
Resting in Christ for everything. That's what He's causing us to
do. He's weaning us from this sinful world. Make you perfect. 1 Corinthians 1.18, Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same things,
that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind, in the same judgment. You prayed
something about unity among believers. Can you imagine that? Perfectly
joined together. And perfect. It just fits right
where it's supposed to fit. God put you, God, listen, I don't
know where you're at in your life, but I know this, you are
right, right now, he may change it in a few days, but right now
you are exactly where God wants you to be. Exactly. Perfect. Perfect. He just said,
well, I don't see it. He sees it. He sees it. You say, well, I
want to believe. He knows whether I believe or
not. If he's going to work out everything to cause me and bring
me to his feet where I have no choice but to trust him, trust
him. Okay, he made perfect. The second one he established
means to set fast, to fix firmly, to render immovable. I think about Martin Luther. And he stood up against that
Catholic church and all those self-righteous men. And they
brought him, said, why don't you just recant? He said, here
I stand. I can do no other. In 1 Chronicles chapter 17, verse
11, and it shall come to pass when thy days, Talmud David,
be expired, and David served his generation, that thou must
go be with thy fathers. And God said, I will raise up
thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish
his kingdom. And he shall build me a house,
and I will establish his throne forever. Now, I know literally
that's talking about Solomon. God raised up Solomon to be king. David wanted to build the house.
The Lord said, you're not going to build the house. I will build
my house. Now I'm going to use Solomon,
but he's talking about somebody greater than Solomon. It's his
house, he builds the house, and unless he builds the house, we're
just laboring in vain. You know what he's going to do
with his house? He's going to establish it, and all hell can't move it.
That's exactly right, because he established it. We say many
times, God's going to establish him a church. Yeah, when he establishes
it, it ain't moved. And it's there as long as he
wants it there because it's established. Not trying to establish, he establishes
it. Read the New Testament. You read
where Paul went and preached to those people and God establishes
churches in Galatia, Ephesus, Thessalonica, and all the other
places. He established churches. They
were there until he was done with them. That's his house. How does he build his house?
He built it out of stones. You ever read how they built
Solomon's Temple? There wasn't a lot of noise going on. They
would go out here to the quarry and cut out the stone and they'd shape it 16 inches
wide, 18 inches long, 4 inches deep, whatever. Whatever it needs
to be fit. And he said, you bring it in. And it fit perfect. Don't even move. You ever seen
those archways that are in arch? It's called that keystone. Everything
rests on the keystone. We know who the keystone is. But He establishes it. Establishes
it. In Acts 2 verse 30. Peter preaching, therefore being
a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that
of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit upon his throne. You know what it is? Men don't
like it. It's immovable. You know what
his throne is? It's fixed. It was fixed before
the world was ever made. But you think of everything that
had to happen to bring the Son of God into this world. Salmon
has to fall in love and marry a woman named Rahab the harlot. They're gonna have a son named
Boaz who's gonna be married to a woman named Ruth. Because Christ has to come. That's His house. To the seat
of David. To the lawns. Read the lineage
of Mary and Joseph. Read it! What is at this house? There won't be only a house. For my glory. You know what happened
in that house? In that temple? That's where
the glory dwelled. Where does the glory dwell now?
in the heart of every believer. It's Christ in you. The hope
of glory. The Lord is working in us individually,
and he is working in us as his church. As we realize not for
whom the whole bit, the body fitly joined together and compacted,
but that which every joint supplies. Established. Established. Like I said, it's made of stones.
And those stones will endure the fire of the trials. It means, as I said, to be not
moved. Colossians 1 verse 21 to 23, and you, that was once sometime alienated,
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
and unprovable in his sight." If you continue in the faith,
that's not a condition. It really means sense. Sense. You continue in the faith
and you will. That's a guarantee. If God ever
saves them when they're saved. Read on. In the body of his flesh, through
death, he presents you wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. And if you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel. If a man can leave the gospel
and never come back, he never knew the gospel. He never knew
Christ. Be not moved away. Everything
wants to move you away from the gospel. Let's get our eyes off
Christ and let's get it on something else. And that's when we always
get in a mess. And he's going to allow things
to bring us back where we Look to Christ. Prone to wonder, Lord,
we feel it. Lord, keep our eyes on Christ.
On Him. The third one. Strengthen. Our adversary is strong. We're
no match for Him. Not in our own strength. But
Satan is no match for the line of the tribe of Judah. Strength. Strengthen. What does this mean?
It means to clamp and bind every part so that there should be
no danger of warping, splitting, or failing. Now I can't hardly
use this pulpit because this is not made out of solid oak.
This is made out of plywood. This is made, it's got, it's
just whatever bored in between it, and it's got a thin layer
of veneer on the outside. I could take a knife and just
chip that right off. And that's what most people's religion is,
it's just a veneer. But this board right here is
solid oak. How you know? I know by looking at it. I see
it from the edge. In my pulpit at home, you could
not make a pulpit out of a piece of wood this big. It would warp. I asked my dad one time, I said,
Daddy, can they dig, get a tree as big as that door and make
a door out of one piece of wood? He said it wouldn't last, it
would warp, and it will. So what you take, you take pieces
of wood, just like my fingers, and you glue them together, and
you clamp them. And they won't warp, and you
can shape it, and they just fit together perfectly. And you know what? Each one strengthens
the other one. You can't have one without the
other. He strengthens us. Cuts this piece and cuts this
piece and they just fit. He makes them fit. Perfectly. Wood, that is if you were left
alone, we would warp, crack, and we would all fail more than
what we do. We are weak. Why, he said, were
two or three gathered together in my name, Barry might have
missed. Exhort one another when, what's it say? Somebody tell
me. Exhort one another daily while it is called the day, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, not
forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching. Why
is he saying that? You need each other. We need
each other. A lot of times I kind of sit
like your pastor does and I sit on Sunday morning and I watch
my sheep come in. And I miss some when they're
not there. Maybe they're not feeling good
or there's some reason they're not there. You know, that's what
Satan wants to do is get a little sheep over here by itself. We
need each other. I tell you, I need your pastor. I need you. We need each other. Left ourselves, we just twist
and you know what, we just mold anything. Mold. I can see all the timbers and
everything in our Lord's house that all ties together and strengthens
each other. Strengthened with all might according
to His glorious power and to all patience and long-suffering
with joyfulness. That He would grant you according
to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by
His Spirit and your inner man. Strengthened. His strength is
made perfect in weakness. Strength. Strength to bear the
trial. Strength to endure. Strength
to stay unmovable. I made references and I even
forgot about it when I preached this sermon before. I mentioned
last night, and I'm not going to ask for a show of hands who
went home and did your reading assignment from the book of Nehemiah,
but I'm going to give you, if you want to turn there, I want
to show you several scriptures which I think illustrate this
point, being strengthened. Now the children of Israel, you
can imagine they were beat down and discouraged. Ezra and them
had come back in and started building the temple and the things
had just kind of stopped. And they were not building the
walls, the walls around Jerusalem, they were just torn down and
in rubbish. And God raised up a man named
Nehemiah and sent him to Jerusalem on purpose to raise up these
walls. And it says in chapter 2 verse
18, Nehemiah comes and he tells them why he's came. He said,
I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me. as
also the king's word which he has spoken unto me." The king
had to give him permission to go to Jerusalem. He was the king's
cut bearer. He's not living in Jerusalem,
he's living in ease. But he was concerned for his
brethren. And they said, and the king's
word is spoken unto me, and they said, now notice this, this is
not what Nehemiah said, the congregation said, Let us, not let me, let
us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands
for this good work. Cast down. And you know what? This is what the preaching of
the gospel is. The king has sent somebody on
a mission. He sent somebody, let's rise
up and build the naysayin'. Come on, let's rise up. And they
strengthened their hands to build this wall. And they were revived
in their inner man. Chapter 4, verse 1. Okay, this is what their objective
is, this is what they're going to do. But everybody's got accustomed
to things being like they are. Spurgeon said if you start, if
you go into a cave and start stirring things up and shining
the light, the bats are going to come out. Everything's fine
until they make up their mind they're going to build these
walls. But it came to pass, and it always will, that when Sambalat,
who's an enemy of the gospel, when he heard that we builded
the wall, word got out, it's just like, did you hear God raised
up a church down there in a certain part of Missouri? Oh, really? And see, Satan said, I ain't
gonna put up with that. At San Blas, when he heard it,
when he heard what? That we builded the walls. He
was down there preaching the gospel. He was mad. And he took great indignation
and he mocked the Jews. He said, bitch, it'll never come
to nothing. It'll never, that church down
there in Jackson was, it'll never come to nothing. How long you
been here? 30 some years? It'll never come to nothing.
Oh really? It ain't the numbers. It's as
if He's honored and glorified. We don't know how many they were,
but we're going to build us a wall. There's a wall. What's that wall
for? It's for protection and separation. Come out from among
them and be ye separate, saying the Lord. Because what's on the
outside wants to come on the inside. And we are not going
to have it. Now verse 11. And you may have
heard me make mention of this last night. And Judah said, the
strength of the bars, the burdens is decayed. And there's much
rubbish so that we're not able to build the walls. You mean
Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah, that tribe would say? It's just too hard, Drew. There's just too much rubbish.
You imagine the stones are charred and weeds have grown up and it's
a mess. You know what? You're a mess.
I'm a mess. Everything's a mess. It's just
too much rubbish. And the strength of the bearers
of the burdens is decayed. People are just wore out. And
there's so much rubbish. We're not able to build the walls. Verse 11. And our adversary said,
they shall not know, neither see till we come in among them,
and we're going to slay them, and we're going to cause the
work to cease. We're going to stop it. How are
we going to do it? We're going to come within. We're going to
discourage everybody, even using Judah. And you know what we're
going to do? You know what the enemy wants
to do? He wants to stop the work. I love that story about when
the servant goes down to get Rebecca and he goes in there
and he goes into the house and he tells them why he come. And
then the next day he gets up and he's going to take Rebecca
home. And they said, oh, just let her stay for about 10 days
or something. They're thinking we'll talk her
out of it. They said, let's call her and ask her. He said, don't
you hinder me. She said, I'm going. That's what
they want. The enemy, listen to me, you
listen to me. What the enemy wants to do is
stop the work. And don't think it can't happen. Verse 14, and I looked and rose
up and said to the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest
of the people, be not afraid of them. Don't you be afraid
of them. Remember the Lord, which is great
and terrible and fight, and watch this, fight for your brethren,
your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. That's something, isn't it? You
fight for them. You fight for them. I told our
church a week or so ago, you know, in Ephesians it talks about
putting on the whole armor of God. There's no armor for the
back. There's no retreating. But Nehemiah,
when he did, he strengthened her hands for the work. Then verse 19 through verse 21,
and I said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest
of the people, no question about it, the work is great and large.
And we are separated upon the wall. You can imagine a little
section over here, they were working, and a little over here,
and a few over here. There's a church up at Cottageville,
there's one at Jackson, there's one up there at Fairmont. You
know, we're just scattered all over the wall. That's us. And
we're one far from another. But in what place, therefore,
you hear the sound of the trumpet. You know what that is? Oh, you
know what that is. When you hear the gospel. When you hear the gospel, it
has a distinct sound. When you hear the sound of the
trumpet, resort you hither unto us, our God shall fight for us. So we labored in the work and
half of them held the spear from the rising of the morning till
the stars appeared. Then chapter eight, verse 10. Then said he unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and
drink the sweet. What does that have reference
to? Well, I just think it has reference
to the gospel. Eat the fat and drink the sweet. And send portions
unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy
unto the Lord. Neither be you sorry. Some of
them were sorry. Some of them were just broke
down and discouraged. For the joy of the Lord is your
strength. The Lord binds us together. Ecclesiastes
4.12, just bear with me a few minutes. He said, if one prevail
against him, two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is
not quickly broken. You know, you can just take,
it's like a rope. You can take one piece of strand and it wouldn't
be easy to break it. You can take two and it's a little
harder. But you take a whole bunch and you bind them together,
you can hardly break it. Why? Because the Lord binds them
together. Mr. Gill said, if a family, community,
city, or kingdom are divided against themselves, they cannot
stand. Does that not sound familiar?
But if united in all probability, nothing can bring it apart. And the last one, make you perfect,
establish, strengthen, settle you. This means to cause all
the building to rest firmly upon the foundation. If you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled. Someone said all these words
are architectural terms and the most important part of any structure. is the foundation. Our Lord said, at the end of
that great sermon, when he preached that sermon on the mount, here's
what he said. Now listen to me. Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will
liken unto him to a wise man which built his house upon the
rock, and his reign is descended, The floods came, the winds blew,
and beat upon the house. There's gonna be storms beat
upon the house. And it fell not before it was founded upon a
rock. 1 Kings 18.3, I have surely built
thee a house to dwell in, a settled place, a settled place for thee
to abide. forever. I hope that's been a help. I
apologize for being a little long. I don't mean to do that.