In the book of Nehemiah in chapter
1 we read of Nehemiah's great sorrow when he hears of Jerusalem
and the state of Jerusalem in captivity how the walls of the
city are in ruins and he prays to his God to have mercy upon
his people he confesses their sin both his and theirs and their
fathers and he prays that God should have mercy upon them.
And Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer. King Artaxerxes in captivity
where he lived. And in chapter 2 of Nehemiah
we read this. Came to pass in the month Nisan
in the 20th 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 would 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 I journey
be, and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send
me, and I set him a time. The king said unto Nehemiah,
why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing
else but sorrow of heart. Sorrow of heart. Nehemiah was broken. He was moved. He was moved that Jerusalem,
Zion, the city of God lay in such a dreadful state. He was
moved that the walls were raised to the ground, that they were
rubble, that they were burned with fire. He was moved that
that once glorious city of God, where God was worshipped in the
temple, and where his people went to worship him, lay in such
a state. It moved him greatly. It affected
him in his very being. He was not apathetic about it. He did not shrug his shoulders
and say, well, what can I do? He did not simply blame his fathers
and the former generation and say, well, they brought this
about. But he was moved about it. This
should not be. He was sorrowful, and this sorrow
could not be hid. It was not something that he
could keep on the inside whilst conducting his professional duty
as the King's cup-bearer, and keep it hidden. He could not
go about his everyday life, his job, his work, and keep his sorrow
about the state of spiritual things hidden. but they affected
his whole life. It was evident to all around
him that things were not well with him. The king could see, in Nehemiah, sorrow of heart. Why is thy countenance
sad, seeing thou art not sick? You're not ill, Nehemiah, yet
you look ill. so sorrowful are you you look
close to death what's the matter nehemiah so he says to the king let the
king live forever why should not my countenance be sad when the city the place of my
father's sepulchres lie if waste and the gates thereof are consumed
with fire How can I not be sad? How can it not show when that
which matters most to me, the city of God, my father's city,
where my fathers lie in their sepulchres, how can I not be
sad when that life wastes, when it's burnt to the ground? Look
at the state it's in. The walls of Jerusalem are rubble. rubble it moved him it moved him now this book of nehemiah covers
a similar period to the book of ezra that we considered recently
and ezra out of captivity along with others is amongst those
who return to jerusalem and are granted leave to go and to rebuild
the city and the temple. But whereas Ezra is very much
concerned, the book of Ezra is concerned mainly with the rebuilding
of the temple in the midst of the city, Nehemiah's concentration
is upon the walls of the city. That which surrounds the city,
that which protects the city. The walls. that which keeps it
secure, that which keeps the people within separated and secure
from their enemies and that which keeps their enemies and the world
outside. It's about the walls and the
rebuilding of the walls and the separation that the walls bring
of the people of God from their enemies and from the world round
about. For where the worship of God
is central, where the people of God are gathered, where the
temple is raised up and the walls are built, there is a separation
from their enemies and from the world. And where there isn't,
the walls lie in ruin. This was a physical place, a
physical temple, a physical city and physical walls. But the picture
is of that Church of God, gathered in Christ its temple, gathered
to worship God and separated from the world around by walls. What are these walls? What are
they built by? They are that which protects
and secures the people. And they are built by grace. By grace. There is a separation
of God's people. Both from their enemies, from
sin, from death. and from the influences of the
world round about which seeks to destroy the people of God. Seeks to take away the gospel
from them. Seeks to corrupt the church. Seeks to lead them astray. There
is a separation. But that separation and those
walls are built by the grace of God. not by the works of man,
not by the works of man. Now there are many who speak
of the need for God's people to be separate, separate from
sin, separate from worldliness, separate from the world's religion,
separate from the world's ways, And much of their zeal in separation,
much of their efforts to be different, come from their own works and
their own will. So they're determined not to
do these things that they once did. Not to go to those places
that they once went to. To live and to walk in this manner. But it all comes in their own
zeal like the Pharisees. It all springs from their own
efforts to be pleasing unto God. It springs from a heart which
looks in condemnation upon those around. and says stand not by
me for I am holier than thou. The child of God, the man who
has tasted the grace of God in salvation does not set up walls
of his own making, walls of works to demonstrate that he is purer
than others. to demonstrate that he is more
deserving of God's blessing than others. To demonstrate that he
is in somehow, some way holier and more righteous than others. The child of God knows that there
but for the grace of God go I. The child of God knows that his
heart is desperately wicked, evil continually. The child of
God knows with Paul in Romans 7 that the good that I would,
I cannot do, and the evil that I would not, that I do, O wretched
man that I am. The child of God knows that his
best attempts to live in a holy manner fail the moment he gets
out of bed. and his attempts to turn over
a new leaf as it were never last but an hour. The child of God
knows that he has no strength and no ability by nature to walk
in any other manner than others do. He's weak in
the flesh. He's daily conscious of the sin
which bubbles up in his flesh. He's daily conscious of his own
poverty, how bankrupt he is, how much of the world and its
thinking and its ways he sees in his own flesh and his own
condition. He's daily conscious of his need
for his God to take him by grace, to clothe him in righteousness. To separate him from that which
would plunge him into ruin. To turn him from those evil ways
in which he once walked. To turn him from the deceptions
and the lies of the world all around him. He knows he needs
God's help. He knows he needs God to do it
all. Otherwise, he lies in rubble. as the walls of Jerusalem lay
in rubble. Yes, there is a separation. And
there is a change and there is a difference when the people
of God are taken by the Gospel of Christ and transformed by
the renewing of their mind and are brought to everlasting life
as those who once were dead, are clothed in the righteousness
of God, are washed in blood indwelt by the Spirit of God. There is
a difference, there's an almighty change, but the change, the change
comes by God's power in the gospel, by grace. God takes a people,
God takes beggars off the dunghill and breaks them He breaks them,
He breaks their hard heart. He breaks their enmity against
Him and His ways. He breaks their zeal for self-glory
and praise. He breaks their desire for the
riches and the pleasures of this world and He brings them down
broken before Him and crying out for mercy. and in overwhelming
grace and love unto them. He leads them unto that place
of mercy called Golgotha. that place where he took his
son for them and nailed his son as a sacrifice unto a tree for
them and took their sin and their guilt and their corruption and
poured it all on his own son and judged that in his own son
and destroyed it in his own son and blotted out their sin in
his own son and he takes them and he shows it to them and he
says your enmity your corruption your worldliness your filth your
depravity look there it is my son has taken it all away all
of it every last drop of it every last evil thought every last
evil way all your sin he's taken it away as far as the west is
from the east and he's made you to be in him the righteousness
of god this is what christ my son has done for you He came
to save sinners like you. That's where the child of God
is brought and that is where they see the grace of God. The grace of God that brings
salvation. The grace of God that takes them
and cleanses them and changes them and adds them and gathers
them into the church. and the grace of God that in
gathering them and adding them to the church, as those who are
born again, as those in whose heart the Spirit of God comes
to dwell, as those who have been washed of their sin, as those
who have been made the righteousness of God, as those who are saved,
when they're gathered into that church, He separates them by
His Gospel unto God. unto God Paul said I've been
separated separated unto God separated by the gospel of Jesus
Christ God took me I was going this way I was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees there was a day once when I was separating myself
I wasn't simply out and out a sinner I wasn't simply living as everyone
else in the world was. But I was seeking to please God. And I was seeking to build up
walls of separation around me. I was seeking to be in Jerusalem. the place of worship I was a
Pharisee of the Pharisees of the tribe of Benjamin circumcised
the eighth day regarding the law of God blameless I was walking
that way I was building up the walls and God showed me that
they were but rubble in his sight He took those walls and he burned
them to the ground because that's all they were. Filth and rubbish. My works, my separating, my setting
myself apart from others and setting myself above others to
show that I am so wonderful and pure and holy. And God showed
me that I was a sinner. the chief of sinners. My zeal
for what I fought was building the walls. My zeal for religion
caused me to stone those who followed Jesus Christ. Caused
me to persecute the church, caused me to put them to death. That's where it took me. And
what I thought was building was really tripping down. Some separation. Christ was holy, blameless, separate
from sinners. There was a difference in Christ. And Paul once thought that he
was holy, blameless and separate from sinners. But he discovered
that his separation was nothing in Christ's sight. And far from
being holy and blameless and separate from sinners, he was
the chief of sinners. And God had to open his eyes
to show him that he was the chief of sinners. Well where are you? Are you separate? Have you separated
yourself from the world and its ways and its religion? Are you
living a holy life? Well it might be holy in your
eyes and it might be holy in the eyes of other religious people
but what is it in the eyes of God? Has God separated you by
his gospel, by grace? Or have you separated yourself
from others and set yourself in your pride and zeal above
others? And are you in reality the chief
of sinners? Works will not save. They will not save. They build
up the pride of man in religion and they bring you into a more
desperate state than at the beginning. desperate, yet there are walls which surround
Jerusalem. And whilst walls of our own building
will leave us in condemnation, the opposite side of the coin
is not to remain in the world with the walls of God in rubble Nehemiah in captivity heard of
the state of Jerusalem and he was sick with sorrow of heart he grieved that it was like this
And the child of God, the true child of God who's tasted the
grace of God is not content to see the church lie in ruins. And he's not content to see the
walls raised to the ground. And he's not content to live
in the world with the world's ways and the world's thinking.
And to get his pleasure and his food and his thinking filled
by the world around him. He's full of sorrow, it brings
sorrow. He longs to be with Christ and
his people. He longs to feed on the gospel. He longs to be in the walls of
Jerusalem. He longs to see those walls built
up. He longs to feel the security
of them around him. He longs to be with Christ, separated
under Christ, separated under the gospel. He longs to feed,
to feed on Christ and his gospel. Where the church lies in ruin,
the gospel is not heard. Where the gospel is not heard,
the church and the walls lie in ruin. And where that is, the
child of God cannot be content. It shows on his face there's
sorrow of heart. Sorrow of heart. He must see
the walls built again. He longs to see the walls built
again and he prays to his God, to his King, build the walls
Lord, restore it, build the walls. And God by grace in his gospel,
builds the walls of his city. There's no other way that they're
built. There's no other way they can
be built. It must be by his gospel. Any other way is to build as
Paul built. Walls of self-righteousness.
Walls which don't keep out sin but lock in sin. Walls in which
there's sin outside and sin inside. There's no security and salvation
in such walls. But when God builds the walls
by his gospel, he takes the sinner, and he takes his appetite for
this world, and his love of this world, and he takes it away,
and he puts new affections in his heart, he causes him to love
that which is from above, that which is heavenly, that which
is of Christ. and he causes him to hate with
an increase in hatred the things of this world which war against
the things of God they have no longer the same pleasure and
the same appeal that they once used to have to him once he had
pleasure in these things but now they're a weariness now they
bring trouble now they bring strife into his life once he
sought after them but now he hates them Once they ruled his thinking
and his thoughts and his goals and his ambitions. But now they're
worthless to him. He doesn't want anything to do
with them. He longs to be with Christ and his people. He longs
to see the gospel preached. He longs to hear of the grace
of God. Longs to. And when he does, when
he hears the Gospel, when the Spirit is sown to, and the flesh
is starved, so his affections are changed more and more, so
he rejoices in Christ his Saviour, and so he is turned, turned from
this world and its ways, under Christ and his Gospel. Now we
can't do that turning. It isn't a will worship. We can't
make ourselves like that. But Christ, when he preaches
his gospel, brings it to pass. And it is brought to pass. We're
not left where we are. And if we excuse and abuse the
gospel by saying, well, the gospel is not of works, and there are
those in religion who have separated themselves and they dress like
this and they do this and they don't do that and they don't
do the other all that works and I won't have anything to do with
it if we excuse ourselves and our own indulgence in the flesh
and say well no I'm going to go to these places and I'm going
to do these things there's nothing wrong with them when all we're
doing is using our liberty as an excuse for indulging the flesh,
then we make the grace of God of none effect. Because the grace
of God takes away our affections. And those films that we once
watched with pleasure, we can no longer watch. And that filthy
conversation of the wicked, which once we found so amusing and
witty and jolly, we now recoil from. and that music which we
listen to so addictively we now find to be abhorrent both with
its noise and its beat and the awfulness of the lyrics which
are so opposed to God's ways we can't walk in the ways in
which we walked and if we say we can then we take our liberty
in Christ and use it for license. There are walls set around Christ's
church. And when Christ builds his church,
those walls will be built and there is a difference between
those who are inside and those who are outside. Outside is a
world of darkness and sin. Inside is a world of righteousness
and light. And it's God who builds that
church. And it's God who brings his people
out of darkness, out of this world, and brings them into his
kingdom of light. The kingdom of his dear son. And there is a difference. But
when the walls are broken down, when the walls lie in ruin, all
you see is sorrow. Sorrow of heart. The sorrow of
heart comes in two ways. Firstly the true child of God
longs for things to be otherwise. He cries out as it were with
Paul. the good that I would that I
do not and the evil that I would not that I do O wretched man
that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death
it brings sorrow he wants it to be otherwise he doesn't want
to sin and he hates it when he does sin he wants to do right
and he hates it when he fails to it brings sorrow because he
wishes it were otherwise. He wishes the church was built. He wishes the walls were built.
He wishes he was gathered with the saints in the gospel. He
wishes he was not walking in sin. He wishes it was otherwise. And when it isn't, he's sick
and sorrowful. But the sorrow also comes because
the walls aren't built. and because the gospel isn't
preached. And where it isn't, we live and
walk amongst those who war and fight against the gospel. We
take in the thoughts and the conversation of the wicked round
about us. We're influenced by all that
is seen and done round about us. And we're starved of the
gospel. Now this is true in the churches. Where the walls have been brought
down to rubble, the gospel has gone. And the world and the enemies
of God have come in. And there's a mixture. And in
terms of the exact locality, you might go and you might stand
there and say that I am stood in Jerusalem. And you are. I am in a meeting place. I am in a place that declares
that it is the church of God that has Christ's name over its
door. But the walls lie in rubble. And what is done and said in
the midst is a mixture. The gospel has been twisted,
has been mixed, has been altered. and all there is for the child
of God in such a place is sorrow of heart. There are either walls
raised up by grace as the gospel is preached or there are walls
raised to the ground by the works of men as the gospel is hidden
and trampled underfoot. You cannot mix grace and law
You cannot mix works and faith. You cannot mix the spirit and
the flesh. As believers we are married to
Christ and dead to our former husband the law. We're married
to Christ and if we return to works and to the law and to any
corruption of the gospel which reintroduces works or the will
of man or the flesh then we commit adultery with our husband Christ
against him. We, as it were, go after strange
women. And when you go after strange
marriages and strange women, all that's brought in is sorrow.
Sorrow. That's what happened in Nehemiah's
day. The people of God, the Jews,
had left God's ways. They'd left the commandments
of God. They'd left the warnings of God not to live in such a
way. And they'd gone off after the
nations round about them. They'd taken their gods and their
idols and their worship. And they'd gone and made strange
marriages with the nations round about them. They'd married the
women from the nations round about that God had warned them
not to do. And this is stressed greatly
in this book as we get to the last chapter. We're warned of
what's happened. And it's because of this that
the people have so much sorrow. Chapter 13 verse 23, In those
days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon,
and of Moab. and their children spake half
in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews'
language, but according to the language of each people. And
I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them,
and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying,
Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their
daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon
king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there
no king like him who was beloved of his God, and God made him
king over all Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish
women cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you
to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in
marrying strange wives? It brought sorrow and ruin into
the people of God, into their midst. such that the children
could no longer speak the Jews language. They could no longer
speak it. And when the church, as it were,
makes strange marriages, and turns from the purity of Christ
and his gospel, and turns back to works and the law, and commits
adultery against Christ and his gospel. They make a strange marriage. And it's no longer the Gospel
they have, but another Gospel, which is not another, as Paul
says in Galatians. Then let them who bring this
in be accursed, for they lead you astray, and they bring in
death and ruin. They no longer have the Gospel,
they've taken it and they've mixed it. And the effect of their
mixing is that the children, those who are in these churches,
can no longer speak the Jews' language. They no longer know
God. They no longer know the language
of the people of God. They no longer know the gospel
or the language of the gospel or the language of grace. They
can speak of religion, they can speak of Jesus, they can speak
of a gospel, but all their description of the ways and works of God
bear no resemblance to the language of the Jews. All they've brought
in is sorrow of heart. And if you do this, if you mix
or compromise the gospel, all you'll know is sorrow of heart. Because the child of God has
a language. and he can say that there's a
pathway that God has brought him there's an experience and
his experience is to learn that he is nothing before God and
that all his building of the walls in a former day were like
Paul's building as a Pharisee and all he did was build up his
own pride and glory and all he saw of his own righteousnesses
were that they were as filthy rags and all he discovered of
his own heart was that it was deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked he found he was nothing before God and he
found that all his decision all his way and all his will set
him against God and his gospel It led him astray and all his
doing, all his working in religion just increased his guilt. And yet there came a time when
God brought the gospel in power and lifted up Christ before him
and he saw how pitiful he was before God, how foolish he was,
how corrupt he was, even his religion, how corrupt it all
was. But he saw a God who though he
deserved to slay him and judge him for his corruption and the
foolishness of his ways and the foolishness of his religion he
saw a God that looked on him in Christ by grace and said I
will not condemn you but I will justify you because I have taken
my son, though you hated him and despised him. I've taken
my son, though you rejected him and ran away from him. I've taken
my son, though you rejected his gospel, and went after your gospel. I've taken my son and I've given
my son for you, though you sought him not. I've given him for a
people who sought him not, who were not my people. I've offered
him as a sacrifice that I should make you clean. And the believer, the child of
God, hears this and falls down in wonder that though he sinned
and though he rebelled and though his building was in his own strength,
that though he brought all to ruin and to rubble, that God
in grace nevertheless forgave him. forgave him and said look
go back to jerusalem and i will give you grace and i will be
with you and i will build the walls by you i will build them
by grace and jerusalem shall be built again and it will be
built by my gospel and you will be gathered with my people in
the midst and i will separate you from this world which seeks
to destroy you and i will separate you in with my people unto the
gospel unto christ in a world in which there is only everlasting
life and salvation you are mine you are mine and those who hear
this know They know that there's no joy for the believer when
the walls lie in rubble. There's no joy for the believer
when the world is in the church and the enemies have come in
like a flood. There's no joy for the believer
when he seeks to mix marriages and turn from Christ back to
his former husband. But there is joy for the believer
when God takes his gospel and builds the walls of grace for
his people, that secures them, that hedges them in round about,
that keeps the enemies away, that keeps the world outside,
and that keeps the righteousness of God in the midst within. There's joy for the believer
when they are secure in Christ, when they're wed as one man with
one woman, One man and one woman, Christ and His bride, for that's
what marriage is, was and always shall be about. Adam and Eve,
a man and a woman, Christ and His bride, united from eternity
unto eternity. there's joy when the child of
God when the bride of Christ is wed to her husband and kept
with her husband and secure with her husband where there's no
mixture where there's no building by the works of man but where
the walls of Jerusalem are built by grace there's joy there's
joy and that sorrow of heart that they once knew floods away
it's washed away by the blood of Christ when their gaze is
set by the spirit again upon Christ and his gospel when their
their gaze of faith is brought and set upon him and they know
once more in their experience that yes his blood was shed for
me He is mine and I am His. He loved me when I hated Him. He died for me when I was dead
in sin, in trespasses and sins. He brought me unto life. He loved
me though I cared not for Him, though I ran far from Him. He
loved me to the end and He brought me to know and I am His. And it's by grace. It started
by grace. It was by grace before I was
born. By grace when I was born and
went astray. By grace when I fell into sin. By grace when the Spirit came
to convict me of sin. By grace when the Spirit led
me to Jerusalem. By grace when God caused me to
be filled with sorrow of heart when I heard of the walls and
the ruin and the state of that city, by grace when God led me
to Christ upon the tree, by grace when God showed me his blood
shed for me, by grace when God took my heart and broke it and
transformed it and poured life everlasting in, by grace when
he added me to the church, by grace when he gathered me in
with the saints, by grace when we met and heard the gospel together,
by grace when we spake of the things of God one with another
by grace when we journeyed through this pilgrimage in this world
and were kept from the evil without and kept by the gospel within
by grace to the end and he knows that it will be by grace when
he steps out of this world into the next across the rivers of
jordan dry foot across from this world of darkness and evil into
the next world of glory by grace when he enters from time into
eternity it will be by grace that he comes to stand in person
before Christ his Saviour forevermore, before the Lamb of God, before
the Shepherd of the sheep, before his great and almighty Lord God
and Saviour. He will say it was grace at the
beginning, grace throughout and grace today. Oh praise the grace
of God, praise the grace of God that saved me and that separated
me unto Christ and that built the walls of grace round about
me and by which I have been brought to live and to reign with Christ
both now and evermore. Is that your cry? Is that your
joy? Is that what's taken your sorrow
away? The grace of God which brings
salvation. Amen.