You would open your Bible this
morning to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 4. I'll give you just a little background. The children of Israel, many
years earlier before this book, God had prophesied that they
would be carried into Babylon. They did not believe it. Because
of their idolatry, of worshipping false gods, of turning away from
the true and living God, God did carry them away into Babylon,
that godless country of Babylon, for 70 long years. And when Babylon came in, That
great temple and all the wall around that temple was utterly
destroyed. God used that wicked country
to destroy that temple. If you can just picture in your
mind the rubbish, the decay and all this that had laid there
for over these years. And I just picture it as nature
takes its course and weeds and everything begin to grow over
this place which used to be a testimony for God. But God remembers His
covenants, God remembers His promises, and God begins to bring
back His people back to Jerusalem. Under Ezra, Haggai, and others,
they begin to come and then they would be laxes and they would
go back here and there But then God burdens a man's heart named
Nehemiah. Nehemiah was in Babylon. He was
the king's cupbearer. And he inquired one day, he said,
how do the people of Israel fare? And if you would just turn back
to the first chapter, and I'll read just a few verses. Verse 2. It says, Then Hananiah,
one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah, and
asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were
left to the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto
me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the
province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem
also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with
fire. And it came to pass when I heard
these words that I sat down and wept. Oh, he was concerned. Oh, he was burdened over the
condition of Israel. the walls of Jerusalem and mourned
certain day and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And
God worked out all the circumstances and God brings Nehemiah back
to Jerusalem. God burdened this man's heart
for this great work of rebuilding these walls that had been torn
down. And that's how God always works.
In this book, we always look for the Lord Jesus Christ, not
only in this book, but in every book of the scriptures. Nehemiah
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ that does love his church.
He is burdened for his church, and he will see that his church
is raised up from the heap of rubbish that it's under. He will
see to it. It's his word. He has always
had a man. He's never been without a man.
He's never been without a witness. God Almighty is still on the
throne. He still is. Nehemiah chapter
4. But it came to pass, and it always
does. When God's determined to do something,
He will come to pass. Don't you know they fought for
70 years, it will never happen. Grow discouraged, grow defeated,
it will never happen. It will come to pass. Will come to pass. When it came
to pass, they had already begun work on the wall. They had already
begun to establish this work. that when Sambalat heard that
we builded the wall, he was wroth, very mad, and took great indignation
and mocked the Jews. Does that not sound familiar?
And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samarians said,
what do these feeble Jews Look at these questions he asked.
What will do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they
make an end in a day? And they are asking, will their
God do all this? And yes, he will. And I love
this last part of this verse. Will they revive the stones out
of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? When they began to
revive these stones, they didn't go out and find new stones. They
just revived the stones that were already there, that were
buried under all this heap of rubbish that had been there for
all these years. They were there before. They
were there in the covenant of grace before the foundation of
the world. But now they're just buried under a bunch of rubbish,
a bunch of this heap of rubbish. And God will revive them. He will restore them. to their original beauty, and
their original splendor, and their original glory. Now to
buy, and Amorite was buying them, and he said, even that which
they build, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone
wall. Nehemiah didn't listen to it.
He said, here, O our God, for we are despised. Do not feel
despised. And turn their reproach upon
their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity. And cover not their iniquity,
and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee. Not Nehemiah
praying for vengeance, but was praying in a spirit of prophecy.
I'll leave somebody else to figure that out. But knowing Nehemiah
as being just a man as we are, many times when we see reproach
and people despise the gospel of God's grace, we feel just
exactly like he felt right there. We might as well just be honest.
For they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. I remember our Lord one day,
he took a whip and he drove the money changers out of the temple.
I don't think he was laughing about it. I don't think so. Provoke thee the anger before
the builders. Now watch this. You would have thought he would
have just said, well, let's just quit. Let's just stop building
the wall. But the next verse says, so built we the wall. And all the wall was joined together
unto the half thereof. Why? For the people had a mind,
they had a determination, they had a zeal for God, they had
a mind to work. You know what's going on in this
chapter? I'm going to read the whole chapter and just try to
make a few comments. You know what was happening here?
Semblath, Tobin, all the enemies around about Jerusalem, everything
was fine. Everything was okay till Nehemiah
showed up on the scene. As long as all the rubbish and
everything was there, everything was fine. But when God began
to rebuild these walls, it made them angry, and they're going
to do everything they can to stop it and to hinder that work. That's their objective. This
world today hates God as much as it always has. Man's nature
has not changed in the least. If anything, it's got worse.
They still hate the God of glory. They still hate a sovereign God.
They still hate substitution. They still hate those things.
And they'll do everything they can, one way or another, to hinder,
try to hinder God's Word. Verse 7. But when it came to pass that
when Sambalad and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Amorites
and the Asherites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made
up and the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very
wroth. In verse 1 it said they were
wroth. Now they're very wroth. In verse 8, and they conspired,
plotted, all of them together to come and to fight against
Jerusalem and to hinder it. That's their objective. Verse 9, nevertheless, nevertheless, we made our prayer
under our God. God will even use our enemies
to get us on our face. to cry out to God. We are no
match. You see people on TV, they talk
about what they're going to make the devil do and all this. We
are no match, but He is. This shows our dependence upon
God, our dependence upon God for everything. It's His work. His work. Nevertheless, we made
our prayer unto our God and we set a watch against them day
and night because of them. Watch and pray. Now watch this. And Judah said, that lion tribe,
instead of speaking like a lion, he kind of speaks like a little
wet pup. Here's what he said, the strength of the bearers of
burden is decayed. And there is much rubbish so
that we're not able to build the wall. We just can't do it. You see how the enemy works?
He'll work on even a believer. He'll say there's just too much
rubbish. It's too hard. We just can't do it, preacher.
It just can't be done. If God's ordained it to be done,
it'll be done. And we feel, before we criticize Judah too much,
we feel that way a lot of times, always just too much. I've done
some work in construction work, just a little bit, and I've been
into a few houses where they was, houses that were burnt.
the awful smell, the stink, and you can imagine going in there
trying to clean that up. And as I thought about this,
I thought about Brother Tom Hardy. You imagine going through that
mess once, but you imagine trying to go through it again. All the
rubbish and the mud and everything else grow discouraged. You said,
well, there's just too much rubbish. Why don't we just quit? Maybe
it's not God's will for him to build the wall here anyway. Let's
just go somewhere else. Verse 11, And our adversaries
said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst
among them, and slay them, and cause, here's what their objective
is, and cause the work to cease. Verse 12, And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt
by them came, they said unto us ten times from all places
from which you shall return unto us, they shall be upon you. Therefore
I said I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher
places. I even said to people, watch
this after their families. God help us to watch for our
families. Fight for our families and their swords and their spears
and their bows. And I looked God help us to look,
not look to what we can see with our natural eyes, but help us
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our strength and our Redeemer. And I looked and rose up and
said unto the nobles and to the rest of the rulers and to the
rest of the people, you could underline this, you could highlight
this, be not ye afraid of them. My word to you this morning is
be not afraid of them. Remember the Lord. As I begin to even think about
this, I was actually looking, I was going to try to preach
on about Jairus. Remember how Jairus come to our
Lord and want him to come heal his daughter who was at the point
of death, and while he was gone to heal Jairus' daughter, the
woman with the issue of blood came. And while he was dealing
with the issue, the woman with the issue of blood, a servant
came from Jairus' house and said, trouble not the master, the daughter's
dead. It looks hopeless. There's no
use for him to come to the house. And he looked at Jairus. He said,
don't be afraid. Only believe. Don't be afraid. Believe God helped us to do that,
as you said. God helped us not just in our
head, but in our heart to really, truly believe God. Believe God. Be not afraid of
them. What does it say in Romans? If God be for us, who can be
against us? 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 it that it was known to us and God had brought
their counsel to naught, and we returned all of us to the
wall. I take it there that they'd kindly
been removed away from the work. Now they returned to the wall,
and watch this, every one and two His work. When God saves an individual,
He places them into the body of Christ. They may be just a
little toe, they may be just a little finger, but they have
a part in His work. And it's a work that only they
can do. Everyone to 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 spear, the shields,
and the bows, and halberdians, and all the rulers were behind
all the house of Judah. They which builded on the wall,
and they that bear the burdens, with those that laid it, every
one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other
hand he held a weapon, For the builders, every one had his sword
girded by his side, and so builded. He that sounded the trumpet was
by me." Let me tell you this. If Satan can get you wrapped
up with all, when all you're doing is fighting, all he wants
to do is keep you from building. Battling and building. God help us to see this. I know many times if you're just
like me, you say, well, what, Steve? God who hath believed,
I report. Does anybody, anybody believe
this gospel? You preach the gospel and you
see people that come for years and hope to find some hope. Maybe
God's done something in their heart and then they leave and
go somewhere else. That's hard. If you love people, it is. We must battle. and build. God's way is still the same.
He kills, he makes alive. He wounds, he heals. That's how
he works. He said, verse 19, to 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. There's some of you here from
California. There's some of you here from other different places.
And God has gathered us here today. Because the work is great. And we are separated upon the
wall. And there's times we need to come together and be encouraged.
This is God's work. God's work. We're all, if we
believe this gospel, and God's people do. Did you hear what
I said? All God's people believe the
gospel. All God's people believe the gospel. That one gospel that
honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He might believe
another gospel. He's lost. Simple as that. Plain as day. We're separated on the wall,
one far from another. In what place thereof do you
hear the sound of the trumpet? What can that be but none other
than the trumpet of God's almighty saving grace, that jubilee trumpet? When that trumpet, it gives a
certain sound. If you've ever heard the gospel
with spiritual ears, you'll know if you hear it again. You'll
know it. Resort thither unto us, our God
shall fight for us. The battle's not ours, it's his.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. I don't care how mad it makes
the enemy. If a man's a true soldier, he's
not afraid to fight. If he's a real soldier, you know
where he wants to be? He wants to be on the front line. He wants
to be exactly where God's glory is being attacked in that day
and in that hour, that's where he wants to be. Nothing else
just doesn't matter. You see on TV, you see guys,
they're getting ready to get on the airplane, they're leaving
their mother, their wife, their children, they're leaving all
that, and you say, don't they love their family? Yes, they
love their family, but they love something more. It's not just
being loyalty to a country. It's a principle. We love. We don't love him like we should.
But if you're his child, you love him with all your heart
and nothing else matters. I'll tell you, God has built
his church with the blood of martyrs. You go back and look, they would
not bow. They would not surrender. they
would not give in. Our God shall fight for us. So we labored in the work. God help us to labor. God forgive
us for our laziness. Listening to a tape coming up
here, Brother Henry talking up on these same subject. He said, people say, well, I
don't have time to read. I don't have time to pray. I
don't have time to do all these things. He said, if you're his,
he'll see you have time. God help us. God help us. God forgive me. God help us to
labor. Labor. labored in the work, and
half of them held the spear from the rising of the morning till
the stars appeared. Likewise, at the same time, said
I unto the people, let everyone with his servant lodge within
Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us and
labor on 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 that every one of them
put them off for washing, wouldn't even change their clothes except
to wash them. It's just something too great. We live in a day like Nehemiah
where there's just so much rubbish. So much rubbish. When God called
Paul and sent him to preach the gospel, look at all the rubbish
he dealt with. Those Jews had all their traditions,
they had their self-righteousness, they had their pride, they had
all those things. All that rubbish has got to be
removed. Got to be removed. Can you imagine
coming into a place like Jerusalem and all this rubbish, this charred
wood and all these things? When you begin to start moving
it, you're going to stir up some dust. You're going to make some
people unhappy, just like he made Sambalat and Tobiah unhappy. They didn't like it. Here's what
Spurgeon said. Now listen, I thought this was
good. It blessed my heart. He said, you cannot remove ruins
without arousing the owls and the bats, animals of the night. The most rotten rubbish upon
earth is sure to find some defenders. They're going to defend what's
been there for years. This rubbish had laid there for
years and sandblasting all of them. They hadn't said anything
for years, but here comes Nehemiah and he's going to stir up some
dust and oh, they're going to get mad about it. People are dead in
trespasses and sins and their traditions and their religions
and everything else. You go preaching the gospel,
start stirring up some dust and people's going to try to defend
it. This is what Grandpa believed. This is what everybody else believed. You know how it happens? He says, by this rubbish many
gain their wealth. They are full of wrath if any
threatens to disturb it. But God helped Paul remove some
rubbish. Imagine what it was like when
we went to Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, them places where that
rubbish had laid there for years. God began to move it. God's going
to raise up some walls. God's going to save some people.
And everywhere Paul went, people followed him. Followed him. Someone said, oh, that God would
employ role excavators employed by the King of Kings and would
get to the work of excavating again the foundation of the walls
of Jerusalem and cart away some of the tremendous heaps of rubbish
that still lie upon the walls. God help us to be excavators. Removing this rubbish. I'll leave this to you, you can
develop, you could think all day about the kinds of rubbish
that we deal with. There's the world and the flesh
and the devil. When you try to talk to people,
it's hard to get to their human ears. The world has the first
word and the last word. It's hard to get even to their
heart. Satan erects all these barricades of rubbish. Carnal
lust, pride, and unbelief. Like you said, they just will
not believe God. We can't build the walls for
all the rubbish. People are wedded to their sins.
They cling to their idols. But let me tell you this, if
we can't build here, there's one who can. There is an arm
which is not weary and can perform all that is needed. God works to build his church. I tell you, God works in his
people. You and me both have a lot of
rubbish. You say you think it's gone,
just wait. You let somebody come against
you, say something about you, what do you want to do? That's
rubbish. This is a building going on,
it's the spirit's work. We see the blackness of our own
nature, the charred wood of our own self-righteousness, our pride,
and our unbelief. God, help our unbelief. God,
I wish I could believe God like I should. Oh, Ishmael, he tries to rule
over Isaac. You may drive him out of the
house, but you'll see him coming around to the window just peeking
in, just laughing at you. Ain't that how it works? That's
rubbish. We've got so many old habits,
so many traditions, so much unforgiveness and unkindness and all those
things that are in our heart and only God can drive it out.
I remember the children of Israel. Bruce made mention last night
about the children of Israel getting ready to go over into
Canaan. Well, when God finally took them over into Canaan, God
drove out all those tribes. He did. Some of them, they would
get so scared, they'd go hide in the bushes. And you know what
God would do? He'd send hornets to sting them. And they drove
him out. When he drove him out, he could
kill him. That's like God sending something in your life, some
hornet or something to sting you, and when it comes out, God
can kill it. God kills and then He makes alive. That's His work. The work of building up the temple
of God in us is His work. His work. He began the work.
He'll finish the work. He cast out our self-righteousness. And on that same foundation,
He raised up the Lord Jesus Christ. The rule is our Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Some say, well, you're saved
by faith, but then you just, by your good works and your good
efforts, then you can sanctify yourself and make you a little
bit holy. I don't know what fool came up with that. They don't
know me. That's just not the case. But
those that God saves, has saved, is saving, and will save. He
saves them. It's not the preacher's job. He saves them. Spurgeon said
it's the bridegroom's job, not the bride, that makes the bride
fit for the husband. And that's pretty good. Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it that he may sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word that he
may present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing. And one day he'll present her
and she'll be without any of those things. It's his work. He removes the rubbish. I can't. The more I strive, the worse
it gets. A time where I think I've got unbelief whooped or
I think I've got pride whooped or something else. Here He raises
it, it's a wiggly head up again. And we feel just like Paul, wretched
man that I am. You know what it does? It throws
us into dust. That's where we need to be. Depending on Him. It's His work. You can't pray
enough, read enough, do enough. It's His work. If it's your work,
why do you need to die? That's one of the biggest rubbishes
in our day. They've whittled down the law of God to something
that man can do from his outside. Make clean the outside and the
club and the platter. What about the inside? What about
the inside? A few words of comfort. The foundation is laid and in
addition there are rows of precious stones built upon those walls.
The Lord has not yet laid all the stones in the temple. God has been laying stone upon
stone without the sound of a hammer. A lot of times you think, what's
God doing? He's laying stone upon stone,
stone upon stone. They have been built and the
walls are still standing, still rising. Glory be to God, the
gospel is a success. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe, and that's what He's
always done. We don't need something new.
Notwithstanding the sneers of Sanballat, listen, God even uses
the wrath of men to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He
will restrain. Like I said, God used these people.
God used those people to build that wall. The more they fought,
the more they wanted to build. The wall was still being built.
This is God's great piece of architecture and he regards it
with delight. Then thus saith the Lord, Behold
the man whose name is the branch, he shall build the temple of
the Lord, even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he
shall bear the glory. Look what God's done. You know
how long it took them to build those walls? 52 days. I said, that's impossible. That's
what's possible and impossible with me, and it's possible with
God. Can you imagine what that enemy thought? What in the world
has God done? God gets all the glory. I see the master builder on his
wall. He shall not be discouraged.
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. But I see
with him a band of men whose hearts the Lord has touched.
And those labor day and night, and cease not till they cease,
they will not cease till the walls of Jerusalem are finished. Let me tell you this, God never
leaves a work unfinished. That's a lot of Armenian bridges.
You ever seen some of them that go halfway across the river and
just stop? God never starts a house and just builds it halfway and
says, well, I just made a mistake. I ran out of money or something.
I didn't see that coming. I'll just quit. Every house God
starts to build, He finishes it. When God planned salvation
before the world began, He finished it. He finished it. He finished it. Here in the building
of the church, there's two works, destruction and creation. the removal of the old and the
erection of the new. And Sandy was talking before
we come over here this morning, as you come up toward our house,
there's a fairly nice brick house. That house burnt several years
ago, and somebody went in and patched it up. And you could
see it, the roof, the whole roof had burned off of it, and somebody
went in and patched it up, and the whole roof looked like this. Well,
about six months ago it burned again. It's worse this time.
Now the whole roof's gone, half the walls, and it's just a mess.
Religion says just go in there and just patch it up. Just put
your little kilts over the wall and cover up the smoke and everything
will be fine. No, it's still an old rotten,
decaying house. God bulldozes over the old and
erects a new. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He didn't come to patch up your
old man. He come to establish a new man. The Lord Jesus Christ,
and He don't leave it high finished. He will perfect you. Those He
did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, and every single solitary one will be as He is. As He is not that we shall be,
as He is, so are we in this world. God's sight, I'm already there.
And God's sight, I'm already perfect. The only thing He's
got to do is this old man to fall off. That's exactly right. Now, if that ain't encouragement,
I don't know what is. The walls were finished in Jerusalem.
And He that hath begun a good work in you, will perform it
unto the day of Christ Jesus. Amen. I'll leave with you a couple
of things. Make sure that you build upon
that foundation. Amen. I said, take heed how you
build. He's the only foundation. The
only foundation. Everything else is just shifting
sand. I tell you, I'd hate to have
a house down on the coast with that hurricane coming through.
If it wasn't on a shore foundation, it won't stand. It may stand
for a while. You let trouble come. You let
heartache come. You let hurricane come. It revealed
to the house its true foundation, its true character. Man say,
oh, I believe God. Wait a while. Wait a while. Wait a while. Let something come that you weren't
expecting. Wait a while. You say you believe God's sovereign.
Wait a while. God will prove to you. He already
knows. He'll prove to you. And the last question I'll ask you,
are you on that foundation? May God bless you.