If you turn again to the book
of Nehemiah and chapter 2. Nehemiah and chapter 2. We read
in verse 1. And it came to pass in the month
Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king that wine
was before him. And I took up the wine and gave
it unto the king. Now I had not been before time
sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto
me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This
is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
and said unto the king, Let the king live for ever. Why should
not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father's
sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed
with fire? And the king said unto me, For
what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven,
and I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy
servant have 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. And the king said unto me, the
queen also sitting by him, For how long shall thy journey be,
and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send
me and I set him a time. I set him a time. Now we looked
at this passage a little last week and we considered the state
of Jerusalem and how the temple was raised to the ground and
how the walls of the city had been raised to the ground. and
how Nehemiah here grieved and had sorrow of heart over the
state of Jerusalem. And how he longed to go and to
see the walls of the city rebuilt. And we considered how the walls
should be built. For this picture is a picture
of the Church of God, and of the walls of the Church of God,
and of the need for the people of God to be gathered and for
the walls of the Church to be built. And they cannot be built
by the strength of man. They cannot be built by the works
of man. But it must be by God's grace. God builds his church, Christ
builds his church and it's built by grace. The Apostle Paul learnt
that. Saul, a Pharisee of the Pharisees
knew the law of God inside out and he was zealous for the law
of God and he was zealous in his worship of God as he saw
it according to the law and he kept that law But the walls of
the city were never built by Saul's keeping of that law. It
led him to persecute the church. When Christ came, when Christ
died, and when the apostles went out to preach the gospel of Christ's
salvation, of him who died and who rose again victorious over
sin, death and hell. When the apostles went out to
preach it, Saul persecuted the church. He had Stephen stoned. He saw these people. with their
message of salvation and their message of grace, as destroying
everything that he held true, as undermining that which he
saw as the way to God. He by his work sought to build
the walls, yet his works led him to persecute and to destroy
and to pull down the very walls of the church which he thought
he should build. Works build nothing but ruin. Your works and your will in religion
will perform nothing but to pull down the walls of the church
and undermine the gospel. It must be God who builds. It must be by grace, not by our
works. We saw before the effects of
man in religion upon the church. The sorrow it all brings in. The sorrow caused by man's sin. Even in religion, What man sees
as righteousness, as good before God, is but sin and corruption
in God's eyes. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags and it brings sorrow. It builds nothing. It just pulls
down. Just as at the beginning of time,
when Adam in the garden, created in innocence, created without
sin, having all the glory of Eden around him. All the blessing
of walking with God in the garden, when he brought his wisdom and
his will upon it. Everything came crashing down
in the fall of man in the garden. Sin entered and death by sin. He put his hand to things and
his hand was to go against God. His hand was to take of that
fruit that God commanded him not to take. His hand slew his
own soul. His hand brought in death. And
so it was then and so it has been ever since. Soon after,
his two sons, Cain and Abel, sought to bring offerings unto
God. Abel, by grace, was shown the need of a sacrifice, of the
need of a lamb, of the need of grace, because he was taught
that nothing he could do could take away his sin. Cain, his
brother on the other hand, brought an offering before God that he
had grown, that he had wrought, an offering of his own works
and his own righteousness. And God was not pleased with
it. And in fury, he slew his brother
Abel, who had brought blood. He hated that which Abel saw
and stood for. He knew nothing of the grace
of God. Oh the lengths that sin goes
to. Cain was living and walking in the religion of man. He offered
an offering unto God. This was a religious act and
yet it led him to hatred of his own brother. It led him to slay
him. Oh the sorrow. the sorrow that
sin brought in. Then what is the answer? Who
can take away that sin? And who can build the walls of
the city of Jerusalem? Not the physical walls, but the
spiritual. Who can build God's church if
man's hand and man's work and man's sin but destroys it? Who will build the walls? And who has built the walls? Is it us? Or is it another? Here in this account we see Nehemiah. Nehemiah, burdened to see the
city rebuilt. Nehemiah, full of sorrow of heart
at what he saw. Nehemiah, the king's cup bearer. The king's cup bearer. But who
is Nehemiah? Who is he a picture of? Is he
a picture of us? burdened to see God's church
built longing to see it built well to the degree that God puts
in our hearts a love for his church and a love for his gospel
and a longing to see the church built and strengthened then yes but really Nehemiah is a picture
of one far greater than us He's a picture of that One who really
does build the walls of Jerusalem. He is a picture of One who really
does build the Church of God. The One who builds the Church. He's a picture of Christ Himself. I will build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it, Christ says. He's
the one that builds. Christ may use his people as
fellow labourers in the building of his church. He may send them
to preach his gospel. He may give them each their roles. in the witness and ministry of
his church but in the end he's the one that works through them
he's the one that's building he is the builder Christ is of
whom Nehemiah is but the figure but before Nehemiah went to build
before the king granted him his request when he saw the desire
of his heart and how sorrowful he was that Jerusalem's walls
lay in rubble before he sent him. It is recorded in verse
11 of chapter one that Nehemiah said, I was the king's cup bearer. I was the king's cup bearer and
it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the twentieth year
of Artaxerxes the king that wine was before him and I took up
the wine and gave it unto the king. He was the king's cup bearer. Christ is not only the builder
of his church that he is also the king's cup bearer. Consider this king, King Artaxerxes. We read of the kings in several
of these books, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. We read of one, more
than one king, Artaxerxes, and several other names used for
the king. But these names are not personal names. This is not
like King Henry or King Edward or David or Solomon. These are
not personal names, but this is a name given to describe the
position of the king. As we speak of Caesar in Rome,
and there were many Caesars, So Ataxerxes is descriptive of
the king, but not a personal name. It means that he is the
great king. And Nehemiah was the great king's
cup bearer. The great king. In Esther, the
name referring to the king speaks of him as being the father. Indeed the inference is the everlasting
Father. And here it's the great King.
And Nehemiah is the great King's cup-bearer. As Christ is God's cup-bearer. There's no greater King for whom
He can bear the cup. No greater King for whom He can
drink wine. no greater king under whom he
can take wine and offer it to. In the 20th year of Artaxerxes the
king, wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it
unto the king. There was wine before the king. The cup-bearer would drink of
the cup of the wine before ever offering it to the king. This
was the practice of old, in case the wine in the cup should be
poisoned. The cup-bearer would be the one
to take the poison and to drink the poison. And should he die,
the one he served would be preserved. Nehemiah took the wine and gave
it unto the king. And Christ had a cup of which
he must drink before ever Christ's church could be built, before
ever the walls of Jerusalem could be built. There must be a cup
which the Son of God should drink. when Christ was made a man made
a little lower than the angels when he came into this world
he came with the purpose of going to the cross of going to the
place of death of standing in the place of his people in death
that he should drink a cup a cup of wrath, a cup of judgment,
which was due unto that people. He came into this world to save
sinners. He came for a wicked and a fallen
people, a sinful people. A people like Abel of whom we
spoke of, like Adam, like Paul, who in his self-righteousness
just sinned and was the chief of sinners. A people like Nehemiah,
a wicked people, a helpless people, a people sold under sin. A people who could do no good.
who never sought God, in whose flesh there dwelt no good thing. Sinners. Christ Jesus came into
this world to save sinners. He came to save his people from
their sins. And to do that, he must go to
that place of death. That place of suffering upon
the tree, that place in which he would be nailed to the cross
in their place, in their room and stead. That he should die,
that they should live. That he should drink the cup,
that they should be spared it. That he should know the wrath
of God, that they should know the love, the mercy and the grace
of God. He came as their substitute,
as their saviour. He came as the king's cupbearer. As Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
9 says, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. crowned with glory
and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. He should taste death. When Christ
died he as it were took the cup that his father gave him and he drank from that cup He drank a wine in which he tasted death. He
drank a cup full of wrath, full of the judgment of God against
our sin. A judgment of God against that
which brought us nothing but sorrow, nothing but ruin. He tasted death. And in taste
in death, he shed his own blood. His own life was taken away and
as testament to the fact that he died, a spear was thrust in
his side and forthwith out came their blood and water. Blood
gushed forth, his own blood. His own blood. And that blood,
that blood which He shed, He took. And He took up to the great
King, to His God and Father. And He sprinkled that blood before
Him. He sprinkled it upon the mercy
seat. He took that blood, that wine. and gave it unto the king. He took his own blood and he
gave it unto the king. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes
the king wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave
it unto the king. I gave it unto the king. This is the cause and the ground
of Christ pictured by Nehemiah going to build the walls of Jerusalem
as a consequence. They could not be built Until
wine was taken up and given unto the kitten. Until Christ's blood
was shed to wash away the sins of his people. Until he could
bring in that people before his God, before him as righteous,
as forgiven, as justified. Until the wrath of God which
burned against the sin and the sins of that people was appease
was quenched but when Christ died when he drank that cup of
God's wrath he drank it to the uttermost he drank it to the
dregs he drank every drop such that there was no wrath and no
judgment wringing out from heaven against any last sin because
every sin of every one for whom Christ died was answered, was
paid for, was washed away. It is finished Christ cried out
at the cross after his soul had prevailed under the pouring out
of God's wrath once he drunk that cup he cried out victorious
it is finished and he took his blood and he went before the
king and he sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and gave it unto
the king And having done so, he could
go and build the walls. He could gather in by His Spirit
everyone for whom He died. He could send forth the Gospel
to the four corners of this earth, declaring what He had done. That He had saved His people
to the uttermost. He had finished the work and
there was nothing for them to do. Salvation was wrought, they
must just believe. And even their believing, is
the work of God, which opens the eyes to see. Having finished
the work, he sent his gospel forth, the gospel that he continues
to preach to this day from on high, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Consider the world when Christ
came, considerate state he came in the midst of time but considerate
state john in his gospel in the opening of his gospel treats
the world and christ coming as though the world is pitch darkness
Christ coming into it is the shining of light in darkness
the world was black in sin there wasn't one speck of righteousness
it lay in ruins but when Christ came the light shone forth in
the darkness and made him known Now you might say, but when Christ
came, he came unto the Jews. And God had had dealings with
the Jews for generations. He delivered them from Egypt.
He'd given them the law and the sacrifices. He'd given them the
priesthood. He'd walked with them. He'd watched
over them. Had not the light shone already? Well yes it had but so great
is the sin of man and so great is the sin of man even in religion
that despite all of that John still treats the world as though
when Christ came it was in darkness and when Christ came to his people
the Jews what a state that people were in, utterly apostate, blind
to the truth, held in the form and the rituals but not recognizing
Christ when he came of whom those forms and rituals spake. All the sacrifices, the temple,
the priesthood pointed unto Christ and yet when the reality came
unto them they could not see. they were blind they were dead
well can you see? You read the Scriptures, you
have the Scriptures, you hear of Jesus Christ, you hear the
preaching of his Gospel, but can you see him? Can you see
this cup-bearer? Can you see this builder? Can
you see the wine? Can you see the blood he shed
and took before the King? Or is it all a mystery to you? Is it all words to you? Do you say you see when like
the Pharisees yet you are blind? Are you still seeking to get
to God and to heaven and to see salvation wrought by your own
will and your own works? Are you still attempting to build
the walls yourself? Or have you fallen down knowing
that your building's getting nowhere? And knowing that you
need someone else. Someone else to build. someone
else to go before the King for you, someone else to take wine
to the King. You know you need an offering,
you know God must be pleased with you and you know that He
won't be pleased with you because you're full of sin and you know
you must be full of righteousness and you can't see any righteousness
inside. and you know that if you were
to stand before God now that He would slay you in a moment
that His justice and His righteousness could not bear to stand with
you. You know that you've got nothing
in your hands to offer Him, that you're bankrupt without a penny
to pay, without anything to offer. If that's what you know then you'll
know you'll know that you need someone to go in to the king
on your behalf and to take something to pay for your salvation to
take something to offer up unto God that he might be pleased
you know that one must go in with wine with blood and sprinkle
it and say that I have washed them I have cleansed them I have
saved them well one has gone in the cup bearer has gone in
the one who drank of that cup who drank of the wrath of God
against the sins of his own he's gone in but he went in having died having suffered unimaginable
sufferings Oh, the sorrow, the sorrow that Christ experienced
in order to take that wine under his king. when he came into the
world to die for his people, as he faced the cross, as he
faced the impending judgment of God, as he could see that
cup coming closer and knew he must drink it, he went with his
disciples and went aside from them and went to pray under his
father, and he cries out as recorded in Matthew 26, oh my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. if it be possible
let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt
he saw the cup approach and he knew what was in it he knew he
must drink it and he knew the sorrow the sorrow of heart that
would be in that cup when he drunk it O the sorrows that this
cup-bearer felt! The sorrow! Can you but glimpse
into it? Has God but opened your eyes
a little to know something of his sufferings? Whose sorrow
is like under his sorrow? Whose sorrow? He who was God
He who dwelt in his father's bosom, he who had always been
his father's delight, went to the cross, was nailed to the
cross as a common criminal, cast out by all men who cried out,
crucify him, away with him. And when he took that cup, his
own father, took the sins and the corruption and the filth
of that people for whom Christ died and laid them upon his own
son he stood there as they as if he were the one who had committed
those heinous crimes as if he was the sinner he stood in the
sinner's place God laid upon him the sins of his people. God
made him to be sinned that they should be made the righteousness
of God in him. And bearing their sins and being
made sin, God poured out his wrath and his judgment against
those sins and Christ entered into eternal suffering. It was in the span of three hours
in darkness, but he drank an eternity of God's wrath. If He didn't drink it for us
then that is what we must drink. We will go into outer darkness,
into a place called hell and judgment and death and we will
drink a cup and we will drink it and we will continue to drink
it in eternity to come and we will never stop drinking. Well
that's the cup that Christ drank for His own and He drank that
eternal wrath in three hours. such was his omnipotent power
that he could but the sorrow it brought him to drink that
wrath and to be cut off from his own father whom he loved
cut off forsaken beaten and bruised as though he was the criminal
when he was the innocent the just who laid down his life for
the unjust. As he approached this scene,
he said to the disciples, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even
unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me. Exceeding sorrowful,
just the thought of it brought sorrow. the thought of it but
when he was there made sin under the wrath of God, dying his cries rang out as recorded
in Psalm 116 the sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of
hell got hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow the sorrows
of death compass me and the pains of hell get hold upon me he who
is the light of the world the righteous almighty God the Son
of God the light of the world was in darkness for death compassed
him and the pains of hell get hold upon him O the sorrow of
heart! No wonder then that the great
King looked upon the countenance of Nehemiah, a figure of Christ
before him and said, why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou
art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow
of heart. His father saw what Christ suffered
what he suffered, what sorrow of heart this death brought that
he should take that blood, that wine and bring it before the
king on his people's behalf. Oh the sorrow that Christ had.
But not only did he sorrow unto death in order to take away the
sins of that people not only was his sorrow because of that
sin and the judgment and the cup that he must drink but he
like that people of his had sorrow over the state of his church
he had sorrow over his people he made the world innocent and
perfect and good he made this world he put man on it and man
fell and sin entered and death entered into this perfect world
that Christ had made and Christ sorrowed because he would not
have that be he did not want this world to be destroyed But
he wanted to have a people who would live and reign with him
forever. He wanted to gather a people.
He wanted to build a kingdom. He wanted to see that people
live and reign in righteousness. And when he looked upon this
world in its sinful rebellious state, and when he looked upon
Israel of old, who despite all the enlightenment and blessings
that had been given them, despite all the revelation of God, still
rebelled and still wallowed in their sin and still apostatized
and still committed adultery against their God. When he looked
upon them it filled him with sorrow. Christ cannot look upon
the state of his church in ruins with contentment. He cannot look
upon this world in sin with contentment. He cannot look upon his people
as they indulge in sin with contentment. But he longs to build them, he
longs to deliver them, he longs to save them. the state of the walls of Jerusalem
brought nothing but sorrow of heart nothing but sorrow of heart
but despite the sorrow both over the church and because of the
suffering On behalf of the Church, despite the sorrow and the depth
of sorrow, Christ didn't remain in such a state. He didn't remain
there. He didn't stay there. That sorrow
brought about their salvation. That sorrow brought about their
deliverance. That sorrow caused the walls
to be built again. The king saw the sorrow and said,
what dost thou make request? So Christ, as it were, said unto
his father, Send me unto Judah that I may build it. Send me
with this gospel that I may gather in my people
in the church. Send me. When? When did he come? When? Christ came into this world in
the fullness of time. He came at such a time as we
see here in this book of Nehemiah, when Jerusalem lay in ruins,
when the walls were raised to the ground. He came when the
world was in darkness. But when he came, and when he
went to Jerusalem, And when he suffered and died outside Jerusalem's
walls, what he did outside the city, cause the greater Jerusalem,
a heavenly Jerusalem, an eternal and an everlasting city of God
to be built, one which would never be destroyed, one with
walls and gates which would never be taken down, one which was
eternal and everlasting in which his people for whom he died,
for whom he shed his blood, should live and dwell forevermore. He
came in the fullness of time, the perfect time He came in order
to build Jerusalem, Zion with everlasting walls. The king asked
Nehemiah to set a time for his return. How long will you be
gone? For how long shall I journey
be and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send
me and I set him a time. I set him a time. Well Christ
came into this world 2000 years ago and when he came he shed
his blood and he took it back to the king and laid it before
him. But he builds the walls now and
he's building them year by year, hour by hour, century by century
but there is a time set for when those walls will be built and
a time has been set at which Christ will go again before the
King and say the walls of the city are built and the people
are gathered within and all has been brought to a conclusion.
He set the King a time. And Christ has set a time when
His Kingdom will be built, when Jerusalem's walls will be complete,
and when every last sinner for whom He died will have heard
the preaching of the Gospel, will have been quickened unto
life by the Spirit of God, and will have been gathered in. And
when that hour comes, this world will be rolled up and burnt with
fire the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll and the world
will be burnt with fire and God will divide his people the sheep
from the goats and that people will go into that heavenly Jerusalem
to live and reign forevermore and everyone else will go into
that darkness in which a cup must be drank for eternity. That day, that
time has been set and that time, that hour when Jerusalem's walls
are finally built is fast approaching. We live in a day when the Gospel
continues to be preached, the last stones are being placed
upon the wall, but the hour fast approaches when the end of time
comes, and when we will all stand before God, either inside those
walls or outside, either in Christ or outside of Christ, either
covered by His blood, or bringing nothing in our hands
but our own filthy works of unrighteousness. Are you ready for that time? Are you looking for that time? Are you prepared? Or are you
walking backwards towards it careless and foolish? Or has God by grace taken you? and taken you to Jerusalem and
pointed you to this cup bearer, the king's cup bearer, who in
sorrow of heart laid down his life for sinners. Who in sorrow of heart laid down
his life for sinners. Sinners such as you and I. Rebels. Those who are born dead
in trespasses and sinned, blind to the things of God, careless,
disinterested. Those who need to be washed of
their sin. Those who need to be cleansed
in blood. His sorrow brought about their
salvation. What Christ took and drank in
that cup brought about great sorrow and brought about his
death. What Christ took and drank in
that cup brought about life for his people. It brought their
life, everlasting life. It saved them with an everlasting
salvation. and everlasting salvation and
this life this life they have is a life in which they're brought
to drink of new wine out of new bottles wine which makes their
hearts glad wine which turns their sorrow to joy and rejoicing
wine which brings life and glory and righteousness If Christ brought
this to you, this salvation, this wine, if he causes you to
drink of it, if he causes you to drink of this cup of salvation,
then you will call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. As Psalm 116 later on goes on
to say, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name
of the Lord. I will take that cup that Christ
gives me. which is not a cup of wrath and
judgment, but a cup of everlasting life, a cup of new wine, and
it will cause me to call upon the name of the Lord, and to
hear his voice calling me, and to know that all is well. Because
he will build his church, and he has saved his people. Are you one of them? If you are,
then you are fast approaching that day when you will enter
in and know that you have been gathered in into that kingdom
to dwell with him forevermore with walls that shall never be
brought to the ground, a kingdom in which God will wipe away the
tears from all eyes, in which there will be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away and all things are new,
a kingdom in which we will sit around the throne of God's Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ forevermore, the King's cup bearer and we
will see that wine that he took and brought before the King and
we will see the wine before the King before God Almighty and
we will know that all is well because he took the cup and drank
it to the dregs and shed his blood and took his own blood
in as testament to the fact that he saved his people from their
sins, that he was made sin that they in him should be made the
righteousness of God. Are you one of them? Have you
heard his gospel? If you haven't, maybe you will
because He won't rest. He won't rest until all is built. He won't rest until every last
stone is in place. He won't rest until the last
sinner for whom He died has heard. He won't rest and we are still
here today. We are still in this world because
He continues not to rest until every last one has heard His
Gospel. It is a day of grace and the
doors have not yet been shut, that time has not yet come. Have you heard? Have you heard
of the grace of God that brings salvation, of the grace of God
that builds the walls, of the King's cupbearer, of His everlasting
salvation. Amen.