Well, good morning, brothers and sisters.
As we’ve been having these times together, we’ve noticed how Ezra and also, as we’ll see today, Nehemiah, were in Babylon, but their hearts were in Jerusalem. What that can show us this morning is that physically we can be somewhere, but our hearts can be somewhere else.
Are we already working our little to-do list of what we’re going to be doing tomorrow? Are we already being anxious about the traffic? “If that Mac wouldn’t talk so long, the traffic wouldn’t be so bad and I could get home.”
But may the Lord help us so that our hearts would be united together in His presence, to seek Him and to see what He would have to share with us to sum up our time together. So let’s have another word of prayer and really seek Him with that whole heart unto Him.
Well, we do thank You that we can come before You. And Lord, we confess—and You know us so well—that we can be thinking about many things. But Lord, now we want to put those aside and really think about that one thing, the one thing that is necessary.
Lord, to sit at Your feet, to behold Your beauty, Lord, to hear Your words. Lord, we need Your grace to enable us to do that. We would deny ourselves, and we come unto You, Lord, in the freshness and the power of Your life, that Your word this morning could be that very effective word; that our hearts would have a door open for Your word to speak and penetrate within each one of our lives, Lord.
Lord, as we came here Wednesday evening, we came with that hunger. Lord, today may we have that same hunger for You, that You might be able to complete that which You have started. Lord, we thank You for Your presence. We thank You for the blessing of brothers and sisters, and together we commit ourselves unto You for this time that we have together. We worship You, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I’d like for us to turn again this morning to Revelation 3, to look at these verses out of the letter to the church in Sardis that we’ve been using as our theme verses for the morning session. Revelation 3, starting in verse 1.
Do we ever get accustomed to the Word? Do you ever say, “Oh, Mac is going to read that verse again. Oh, Dana’s going to read that one out of Exodus again. I’ve heard it how many times?”
Do we need to hear the Word? Even as we repeat a few verses every day, every time we read that Word, may the Holy Spirit breathe upon it in a fresh way and open more and more to us, that we could see the vastness of the riches within each word that He has penned for us.
We don’t want to just read these verses out of a little ritual that we say, “Okay, this is the way we do it this morning.” But we’re coming in the freshness and the power of its life, that in a fresh way His Word could speak unto us. It would expand our hearts in a greater revelation of Himself.
So, as we start in chapter 3, it says:
Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write:
He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars, saith these things:
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die:
for I have found no works of thine perfected before My God.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent.
As we’ve been fellowshipping together in these morning sessions, we simply have this desire to respond to the Word of God: to realize that, just as this church of Sardis was in a weakened condition and needed to wake up, we find ourselves today in a weakened condition, and we need to wake up.
The Lord, as He calls us to wake up, says, “Strengthen the things that remain.” And how does He do that? He says, “Remember what I’ve shared. Remember those deeds that you were called to. Remember My heart and purpose, because I haven’t found them completed.”
There’s a purpose that He desires to achieve within each one of your lives individually and together. May we be those that respond to that. May we be those that remember more and more the preciousness of our Lord, how we have received that, and allow that Word to truly penetrate within our hearts.
We’ve been using the books of Ezra, and today we’ll look a little more at Nehemiah, just for an example of how the Lord strengthens His people in times of weakness.
If we were going to sum up this phrase, “strengthen the things that remain,” and ask, “How does the Lord do that?” He has a very simple answer: a greater revelation of His Son.
It’s not complicated. We look throughout the Scriptures: every time the people of God were in a crisis, how did the Lord meet that crisis? It was a greater revelation of His Son.
What’s the whole message of the book of Hebrews? Consider Jesus. They were in a crisis, and they needed that greater revelation of the Son. In 2 Timothy, that last letter of Paul’s, in that time of crisis when they were weakened, what did the Lord say? Remember Jesus Christ.
The last book in the Bible—what is it? How does the Lord strengthen His people in that hour? The book is not so much about events, but the book of Revelation is about a Person. It is a revelation of a Person. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ.
It is amazing how we can even get distracted by the events of the book, the characters in the book, and we miss the Character. How do we strengthen the things that remain? We pray. We ask the Lord for a greater revelation of Jesus Christ.
That’s what Ezra and Nehemiah did. Ezra came into the situation and brought the Lord right in, that the people could behold the Lord. He used the Word of God. Was it that they would just know the Word of God better? No. The Word of God was used to reveal Jesus Christ.
As we fellowshiped yesterday about the prayers—so many precious prayers—what was the overall objective of those prayers? It was that, as they fell upon the mercy of the Lord, there would be that greater revelation of Jesus Christ into the situations.
As we go back and face things within our lives, within our assemblies, every crisis we face—the answer is that greater revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember reading in Brother Sparks’ book, God’s Reaction to Man’s Defection, and this is where I first heard this little phrase, because he uses it. He says over and over again, “The answer to every crisis is a greater revelation of Jesus Christ.”
We can have troubles here, troubles there, and we’re looking for many things. But the Lord has that one answer. He is calling us in this hour, as His people, to return to that simplicity of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s His answer for the days that we’re living in.
Stella and I have the privilege a couple times a year to go to Brazil. As we’re there, many of the brothers and sisters that we’re with think a lot differently than we do—not only just the way that Brazilians think, as Dana has already mentioned.
Most of the brothers and sisters that we’re with, their interpretation of the Lord’s return is a post-tribulation interpretation. Now, of the various interpretations, I don’t know about you, but that’s my least favorite. If I’m going to vote, I don’t put post-trib at the top of the list.
But the precious thing about it is this: as they interpret that and as they believe it, what dictates how they get through that? A greater revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that’s how it all works out, how do we make it through that? A greater revelation of His Son.
Now, please, let me just add one little footnote: don’t come up to me afterwards and give me all the pros and cons of the different interpretations—post and pre and mid and all that. Forget that.
The point is this: whatever the Lord’s answer in every situation, even in these end days, whatever our interpretation might be, if the way through is other than a revelation of Jesus Christ, we’re being motivated in the wrong way.
It is as we see more and more of Him that we come into the fullness of His heart and His purpose. This is the whole burden as we’re looking at these books and considering them: that the Lord, in a fresh way, would stir us to behold Him and to have that heart’s desire.
I’d like for us to turn this morning to Nehemiah. Turn to the first chapter there, because we have this setting of Nehemiah as he is still in Babylon. We know Ezra has returned. The altar has been restored. The house of God has been restored. The Lord has been brought in. There has been this work amongst the people of God.
Now the Lord hasn’t finished. As we look at the book of Nehemiah, how does it help us to strengthen the things that remain? The book of Nehemiah helps us to strengthen the things that remain by giving us a greater revelation of Jesus Christ as we function and live together as the people of God.
We have that greater revelation of Jesus Christ in our lives and in our lives together. That’s the key, as we’re looking at it today through this book of Nehemiah.
So let’s look at the first chapter here. As we said, Nehemiah is still in Babylon. We’ll read the whole first chapter, and we pray again—even many of us are very familiar with this book—may the familiarity of these words not be a distraction to us.
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
Now it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, that were left of 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, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,
and said, I beseech Thee, O Lord, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments:
let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants,
while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee: yea, I and my father’s house have sinned.
We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech Thee, the word that Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:
but if ye return unto Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to cause My name to dwell there.
Now these are Thy servants and Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power, and by Thy strong hand.
O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy servants, who delight to fear Thy name:
and prosper, I pray Thee, Thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
So we come to this book of Nehemiah. As we mentioned, Nehemiah is divided into two sections. We have those first six chapters, which focus upon rebuilding the wall, and then the last chapters of the book focus upon life together.
But in all of this, we see this togetherness—this functioning and flowing together of brothers and sisters. There is one verse, I think, that we need to keep in perspective and before us as we’re looking at this book of Nehemiah, because it shows us the function and the call that we have in the hour in which we’re living.
Look over at Nehemiah 4. Nehemiah 4:17—and we’ll touch more on this later—says:
They that wrought in the work and they that bare burdens laded themselves; every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held his weapon.
They were doing a work of building with one hand. There was the sword; there was a warfare going on in the other hand. At times they were building; at times they were fighting. But these were a people prepared. In the midst of the building, there was warfare.
We need to have our eyes open that, in the days we’re living in, in the midst of the building work that God is doing amongst us, there is a great warfare. One of the things we’ll see in Nehemiah is that the warfare is focused upon the city of God, the place where He has chosen His name to dwell.
As we’re living today as the people of God, where has He chosen His name to dwell? The house of God—the church. He has chosen His name to dwell there, and it is the focal point of the warfare.
Let us not think too much of ourselves, as though the battle is over us individually. Yes, we have our individual battles, but the battle is over the testimony of Jesus—that place throughout eternity where He has chosen His name to dwell.
We are those who have been called out to return unto Him, to live in this simplicity, that we might be that testimony to the world and to the nations: this is the house of God; this is the house of the true light in the midst of a dark age. Would the Lord really help us to be strengthened, to carry on that testimony in the hour in which we’re living?
We said Nehemiah speaks about rebuilding the wall. Again, what is the wall? A wall has many functions. It separates. It says, “What’s inside is ours, but outside is not.” It is a testimony: “This is the Lord’s.”
The wall is that testimony. The wall is that place of separation. The wall is a protection also. The great walled cities protect us from what is outside there.
We need to ask again, not, “What is the wall?” but, “Who is the wall?” The wall is our Lord Jesus Christ. Though, as we’re in Him, we are safe, we are secure, and there is every provision made for us.
There are the blessings that we enjoy in Him. There is a separation unto Himself. So often we think of sanctification and separation as leaving something, going out. That is an aspect of it.
But the blessedness of sanctification, the blessedness of this separation, the blessedness of holiness, is not so much the coming out, but it is the coming in to all that Christ has. There are two steps in this process of holiness and sanctification: the coming out and the going in.
So often we neglect, forget, or do not see the joy of the coming in—being set apart unto Him. Would the Lord open our eyes that this wall that we have is Christ, and in Him is every provision?
How do we make it through these days? By making our home within the city of God. There were those dwelling all throughout Israel, but it says, “Blessed are those who volunteered freely to live within the city of God.”
They volunteered. They made a choice. They could have lived many other places within Israel, and it would have been safer to them. They could have had perhaps a more comfortable life. But they chose to live within the city where there was a constant battle, because that is where He has put His name, and that is what the battle is over.
We see Nehemiah as he is there in Babylon. Even though Nehemiah was in Babylon, where was his heart? His heart was in Jerusalem.
As soon as some came back, he said, “How are the brethren? How is the condition of the Lord’s people there in Jerusalem?” So often, don’t we do that? Isn’t that a natural response?
You meet someone: “How are the brethren in Richmond? How are the brethren in Seattle? How are the brethren here and there?” It shows that concern. We are not just being polite or curious; there is this concern.
When the Lord has captured our hearts in such a way that we see something of the body of Christ and the call, we are concerned about our brethren in other places. “How are those brethren in Memphis? How are the ones here?” This was where Nehemiah’s heart was: “How are they? What is their condition?”
It is sad, the report that they gave. The people were in reproach, and the wall was broken down. Again, we see Nehemiah’s prayer. It brought him to his knees. He was before the Lord for days, weeping and mourning. For whom? For the Lord’s interest.
It was not his own interest. He was there before the Lord’s interest. We see within this brief prayer in Nehemiah 1 all those principles that we mentioned yesterday. Nehemiah humbled himself. He testified of Who God is. He confessed the sins of his people and cried out for the mercy of the Lord to come in.
As we said, he prayed for Jesus Christ, for the very life of Christ to come into the situation, that those within that city could be strengthened and renewed.
Now we know that at the end of this chapter it says Nehemiah was the cupbearer of the king. I am sure we have heard different teaching about that. It was a very trusted position. Nehemiah was in a place of prominence.
The very king trusted his life to this one, because the most popular way of killing kings back then was through poisoning. So Nehemiah would always taste the cup. Whatever the king was going to drink, Nehemiah would drink first. If he did not croak over dead, then the king would go ahead.
He did not have to worry about guided missiles coming in, or things getting dropped from F-4s or any of the planes. All he had to worry about was that cup. As long as that cup was safe, as long as Nehemiah was all right, the king felt comfortable. He was trusting him.
So Nehemiah had a pretty good setup. He lived in a king’s palace. He had everything at his disposal. If he was sick one day, the king made sure the doctors took care of him. Whatever Nehemiah needed, he was taken care of. He had a good life.
But where was his heart? When he had that opportunity, what choice did he make?
Nehemiah was in such a good position with the king that, when he heard about the condition of the wall, he probably could have said, “King, the wall back there needs to be rebuilt. How about just send in some money? Send some workmen over there. Send somebody—send some other people over there and do it.”
The king might have said, “Okay.” But Nehemiah knew the call of God on his own life, and he knew where his home was. He knew that he had this call and this opportunity to return to the place where the name of his God dwelt—the city of God.
This was what was directing and motivating Nehemiah. When he had this opportunity, Nehemiah was praying, beseeching the Lord to open the door so that he could return.
It is so precious to see this one. Nehemiah left all the pleasures of this world, much like Moses leaving that palace. Nehemiah put them behind and said, “This is where the Lord wants me. This is the call the Lord has for us in this hour.”
For us to put aside and look aside those things that are not of Him, and come back to where He desires that we be.
As we see Nehemiah here, and go on to chapter 2, between the time Nehemiah prays in chapter 1 and the time we come to chapter 2, about four months have passed. He has been continuing to pray before the Lord.
As he is praying before the Lord, one day the Lord desires to answer his prayer. The Lord comes in, and it is done in a strange way. All of a sudden, the king notices Nehemiah: “Your face—you don’t look too happy today. What’s the matter?”
That was not a good sign. The king always wanted Nehemiah smiling. Nehemiah always had to smile. All of a sudden, one day he was not smiling, and the king says, “What’s the matter? What’s going on here?”
What was Nehemiah’s first response? I appreciate his honesty. Verse 2, toward the end, says the king saw his sad face, and Nehemiah says, “I was very much afraid.”
“I was very much afraid”—not just afraid, not just much afraid, but very much afraid, because he knew just like that his life could be gone. The king could say, “Poof, Nehemiah, you’re out of here.”
But the precious thing is this: Nehemiah had a faith in God that was greater than the fear of man.
Nehemiah had a faith in the Lord that was greater than the fear of man. Brothers and sisters, do we know the strength and the power of the fear of man? The fear of man is a fierce thing.
The fear of man, as it tells us in Proverbs, is a snare. It is a trap. We will trip over it all the time. How often are we driven by the fear of man?
What could we learn from Nehemiah and these dear ones? There is a faith in the Lord that is greater than the fear of man. Nehemiah was one who feared the Lord.
I really believe that, in the days we are living in, we always talk about the Lord bringing more and more things to light. One of the prayers upon my heart recently relates to this whole matter of the fear of the Lord. I think it has been lost within the people of God today.
The fear of God is not contradictory to the love of God. Actually, the more we love Him, the more we will fear Him—not being afraid of Him, but out of reverential awe, giving Him His rightful place.
I keep asking the Lord, “Lord, show me more of this,” because it has been lost. I do not get the fear of the Lord fully, but I am desiring that the Lord would show us.
I was looking at one book, and the author made an interesting statement. So often we think of the fear of the Lord as an Old Testament thing. This brother made the comment that actually, in the New Testament, we are told to fear the Lord more than we are told to love the Lord.
There are more verses in the New Testament about fearing the Lord than there are where we are commanded to love the Lord. I went through my little quick computer concordance, and he was right. It kind of hit me upside the head.
But over and over, Paul talks about fearing God—things done in the fear of the Lord. Would the Lord touch us in a way that we could allow Him to show us more and more of that? I believe that as He shows us more of His love, we will come into a greater appreciation of that fear of the Lord too.
As Nehemiah prays, as he is fearful, and he goes to the Lord, the Lord turns the king’s heart and grants Nehemiah permission to return to Jerusalem.
As we see Nehemiah returning to Jerusalem, all of a sudden we see something surfacing. In the middle of chapter 2, in verse 10, we see the first mention of the enemy:
And when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, for that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
Someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel. It tells how they were greatly displeased. I was thinking about that. When our Lord Jesus came upon this earth and was walking throughout His ministry, there were those who were very displeased that He came to seek the interests of the people of God.
Who were those who were displeased? It was those Pharisees; it was that council. There is an interesting phrase in John 11. It says they were displeased because their place was going to be taken away from them.
Their place of prominence, their place of position. Sanballat and Tobiah were officials; they were governing. Someone was coming who was going to rob their power base. He was going to come into their kingdom.
All of a sudden, we see the enemy starting to surface. Whenever ones are coming to seek the interests of the people of God, whenever ones are coming in to seek that the Lord’s testimony might be strengthened, immediately the enemy’s radar spots that.
The enemy has a wonderful radar system. He is not omnipotent—only the Lord is—but he has spies in different places. Here is someone in some remote area gathering together in that simplicity of Christ; flip, the enemy’s radar screen starts to notice that. “Aha, there are those who are seeking there.” It catches their attention.
But as Nehemiah returns to the city, it is precious how he takes a couple of days and goes around to look at the situation. Too many of us act or do things based on secondhand information or gossip.
But Nehemiah wanted to see things firsthand. So, very quietly, he goes and walks around at night, inspecting the whole wall. Then, after he has done this, he calls the people together.
He shares with them the testimony of all that the Lord has done in providing for him to return, and he encourages the people to rebuild the wall. We are thankful to the Lord that in Nehemiah 2:18 the people said, “Let us arise.”
There was this response: “Let us arise and build together. Let us arise and be about the work that the Lord has called us to.” He has made this wonderful provision. We see the hand of God again in the situation, making this provision for the testimony of the Lord to be strengthened.
They praise God. There is this response: “Let us arise and build.” As soon as there is this response for the people of God to start working and building together, immediately, in verse 19, we see the enemy again.
We are going to see the enemy a good number of times in this book. One of the things we will notice is that every time the enemy is mentioned, it gets a little bigger. There is an increase of the enemy.
Before, we just had Sanballat and Tobiah. This time, we have Sanballat, Tobiah, and now Geshem is in there too. There is an intensity of the warfare increasing here. We also notice the different tactics that get used.
It says they mocked at us and despised us. “What is this thing you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Just as our Lord Jesus was upon this earth, standing for the Lord’s interest and trying to bring His interest in on this earth, here Nehemiah was doing this, and there were those mocking and despising.
Brothers and sisters, we need to wake up to the fact that as we are about the call of God upon our lives, we will be mocked and despised. Sometimes the mocking and the despising can come from those who are closest to us.
As Peter says, do not think it strange, brethren. Sometimes we, as believers, can be so naive that, as we are gathering unto the Lord and are going to be about building His house, everything is just going to be rosy. Oh, there is a warfare there.
We need to see the intensity of that warfare, the mocking, and all that will stand against us. Praise the Lord, what is Nehemiah’s response as the warfare intensifies?
He does not really respond to them, but he gives the testimony:
The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.
His testimony is that God will do it. Brothers and sisters, our testimony in this hour is that God will build His house. He has promised, “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Praise God, He is going to do it.
The work that He started within us individually, He is going to complete. The work He started amongst us together, He is going to complete. We can be found either cooperating with Him or resisting Him, but He is going to bring about this completion.
Then we come to this beautiful chapter 3, this wonderful picture of ones arising and building together. There is this togetherness: each in their place, building the wall all around Jerusalem.
One of the ways that we strengthen the things that remain is through the functioning together of brothers and sisters under the headship of Christ. There are many similarities in this chapter between Nehemiah 3 and 1 Corinthians 12.
Each member had a particular place. There was different work going on, but it was all with one purpose. They were all called to work and function. The response to the call was voluntary. A call went out; no one was compelled to work. There was a freewill offering.
Each one had his particular place. As you go through this chapter, you see that one built from this area to this area, and one built from here to here. We have had enough teaching to know that we do not choose our place.
Who chooses where we are? Not only who chooses where we are, but who chooses the one next to us? The one next to us is going to be the one who rubs us in a way that the rough edges get taken off.
The precious thing is that the rough edges get taken away as we allow the cross to work within us. The roughness gets taken away, and what gets revealed is Christ.
If we never have those opportunities for those rough edges to be dealt with—that short temper, that long-windedness, whatever it is, the know-it-allness, the stubbornness—we can get amazed sometimes at the ones we are with.
As I have mentioned before, my grandparents were all born in Scotland, so I am a Scot, a thoroughbred. One thing about us is we are stubborn as anything. Lo and behold, who does the Lord put you with? Someone through whom that stubbornness gets dealt with.
The thing about Scotchmen that really has to get dealt with is that we are proud of our stubbornness. We see it as a strength. First, we have to see that this is not good, Mac. We can be so proud of our stubbornness.
So the Lord has to give us that double portion, and then all of a sudden I am with somebody twice as stubborn as me. Oh, I am not talking about family life. I am talking about church life—not talking about Stella.
We’ve been married thirty-four years. I’ve learned one thing. I had to clarify that for sure.
But we find ourselves in these situations, and if we do not see that we are there with purpose and calling, we just pack our bags and go somewhere else. “I want to work over there on the wall. I want to go around here.”
The Lord has us where He has us. If we could see the value and the treasure of being with these ones, oh, how precious it is, because He wants to change us.
There is a little phrase in Christianity, and it is one of my little pet peeves. I guess we all have our pet peeves. We will be having our so-called church life together, and someone will act a certain way and say, “Well, that’s just the way he is. That’s just who I am.”
That is a bunch of baloney. You are who you are in Christ. But to say, “I can be stubborn, I can be long-winded, I can be this or that, because that’s just the way I am,” is denying the power of the cross working in your life.
So often we do not hold one another accountable. We just say, “Oh, that’s just the way she is.” No. If we love her, we help her see that that is not the way the Lord wants her to be.
We let each other off the hook too much by saying, “That’s just the way they are. That’s just the way those New Yorkers are. That’s just the way these people are.” But no, there is a relationship together.
I do not want to be just as I am. He loves me too much. He died that I would not be just as I am, but that I would be who I am in Christ. Praise God for that. There is a freedom in that.
As we help one another, as we are related together with one another, the cross becomes very practical, and the love of the brethren becomes very, very practical and manifest within our midst.
May we make ourselves available so that, as the Lord has us in these places, we redeem the time and make the most of those opportunities for rough edges to be rubbed off and refined, so that the character and nature of Christ can come out.
We see in this chapter that many are doing many different things. We know within the body of Christ there are a great many functions, but it is all with one purpose. We are all called into this one purpose, and it continues to motivate us as we see the preciousness of every work that is going on.
Brothers and sisters, we are all called to function. There was this call that went out: “Let us arise.” In the South, let me give you another little language lesson. We have heard about “y’all,” but if you want to get everybody, you say, “All y’all.”
This call goes out to all y’all to rise up and build. That is more comprehensive. That gets everybody. But it is a freewill, voluntary response by those who have been captured.
As we see within the chapter, there were some who thought a little too highly of themselves. Down there in verse 5, those nobles of the Tekoites said, “No, we’re not going to build. Everybody else can, but we’re just a little bit better.”
Sometimes we can think, “Are we too good? Are we elevating ourselves in our own minds, thinking, ‘Well, I can let someone else do that’?” We are all called into this work.
There is this wonderful theological phrase that has been recovered: the priesthood of all believers. It simply means that we all function together.
As we came together at the Lord’s table last night, or as we pray before and after meetings, I love it when there is barely a pause—prayer after prayer after prayer comes forth from the heart, because they are priests before God, desiring to express and pray for His interest.
Notice, as those prayers go forth in the spontaneity of His life, the spontaneity of His life is bringing the Lord into the situation—not focusing upon us, but again bringing His life into the situation.
One of the treasures in this chapter is that the Lord notices every little detail. Sometimes we think we are doing something and the Lord has not noticed. He notices every little detail.
We already talked about verse 5, where the nobles did not work. Look down at verse 13. It is even noted that these built a thousand cubits. Others did this or that, but all of a sudden it says, “These built a thousand cubits.”
In verse 20, it talks about those who zealously repaired the wall. There were those who were repairing, but the Lord said, “No, look at those zealously repairing.”
You could look in verses 20, 21, and 24, and it says, “These repaired another section.” So often, we do what we are called to do, and then we stop. We are like union employees: “Yeah, this is my job. This is my call. This is my function. This is my gift within the house of God. This is what I do.”
“Work over here? No, somebody else has that.” No. We are all serving. These ones finished what the Lord had them do, then looked over and saw a need. They went over, started building, and repaired another section.
The most encouraging person I find in this chapter, if I can use that phrase rightly, is in verse 11. It speaks of Malchijah the son of Harim. Do you know who that is? Have you ever heard of him before?
He was one of those over in Ezra 10. He had a foreign wife. Look back at Ezra 10:31. He had become an abomination to the Lord and entered into an unholy alliance.
The Lord held him accountable, and he accepted his responsibility. He repented of his sin. Whatever the consequences, he paid the price and continued on. He settled the issue under the blood of the Lamb.
Just because of past sins, once they were under the blood of the Lamb, when the call came to arise and build, he was there, available. Brothers and sisters, none of our past, once we have settled it, disqualifies us from being about the work of God and building His house. That is a lie of the enemy.
So often we say, “Well, because I did this”—not even talking about before we were Christians, but after we are Christians—“I did this, and it was horrible.” You did, and it was horrible. You are called to repent for it. Accept responsibility for the actions.
But then there comes a time. Sometimes, depending on what we have done, there needs to be a little time before we function too much. But the Lord, in His mercy and grace, brings that time when this one arose and entered into the work of rebuilding the wall and standing for the testimony of Jesus.
This testifies of our acceptance in Christ. I am so thankful for this one among those in this chapter. It shows the grace and mercy of God.
This one really speaks of each one of us. If there is one person in this chapter to whom each one of us relates, it is this man. If you do not think you relate to him, that is the call we have been saying: we need to wake up.
In and of ourselves, we are all disqualified. But praise God, He made a way for us to settle things within our lives. He has made a way for us to be accountable and responsible, accept His forgiveness, and go on about the work that He has called us to. He has made that provision for us in Christ Jesus.
As we think about rebuilding the wall also, this is a messy place. We do not like mess, but rebuilding and being built together is a messy place. Sometimes, out of the messes come some of the greatest relationships.
There is a dear sister here whom I have known since she was a little girl. We were at a conference in Richmond one time, and she was having a tough day. I will not go into detail.
I tried to pick her up and hold her, trying to be of comfort. Do you know how she repaid me? She threw up all over me.
But I kept holding her. Through the mess, and now, a few years later, that mess has turned into a bond for us.
Sometimes, as brothers and sisters in the house of God, we are trying to help someone, and they throw up all over you. All the evil, all the wickedness within them—you are trying to help them, and it just comes out. What do you do?
Do we back off and say, “Well, forget you”? We keep holding them. Through the mess, as we go through the messes of our lives together, it is often the messes that create the bond that we have in Christ.
If we never go through these bonds and messes, the bonds are weakened. There is a strengthening as we go through things together. As we have crises within our life, a brother or sister walks through those with us—not sitting there judging us or condemning us, but walking through with us, leading us to the Lord.
They are not giving us a bunch of self-pity, but leading us to the Lord. There is a relationship, there is a strengthening there, that nothing could separate.
So the next time a brother or sister throws up on you, praise God for it. All the filth that can come out. If you are working next to them and their hammer hits you on the toe—whatever goes on—the Lord arranges these circumstances for us so that we can grow together.
There can be that testimony of His life upon this earth, because there is too much naturalness and natural reaction within the people of God today. That is why this whole issue of the wall is so important: there must be a dividing of what is of God and what is not.
We allow natural reactions to prevail, and people look and say, “What is the difference between the world and the church? They all handle things the same way. They fight the same way. What is the difference?”
As they see the cross working in our lives, as we lay our lives down, as they see the love of Christ manifested, that wall is strengthened and goes up. There is that testimony that we are different.
There are sinners outside the wall, but who is inside the wall? Sinners. The difference is that we are forgiven. That is the difference between heaven and hell. There are sinners in hell; there are sinners up in heaven, but praise God, they are forgiven sinners.
We have to realize where we all come from, so that as we go through these things we can see the greatness and power of His life. There would be that testimony of loving one another, in spite of everything against us saying no.
We could allow the Christ-life to be manifested and draw us into that strengthening of one another as we seek Him in these last days.
As this building work goes on, you can almost imagine, as you turn to the next chapter—chapter 4—that the intensity of the work of the enemy is only going to be magnified that much more.
As you look at those first verses, these enemies and their accusations are intensifying, because the enemy’s objective is to stop the work. Brothers and sisters, the enemy’s objective today is simply to stop the work—to get the people of God to sit down, stop what He has called us to do, and live our little religious lives.
But He is calling us to be about His business of that testimony. We see within chapter 4 this mocking of the enemy. We see how the enemy is increasing: Sanballat is there, his brothers are there, and now the wealthy men of Samaria.
Look at the mocking: “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifice? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from dusty rubble, even the burned ones? Even what they are building, a fox could jump on it and break their stone wall down.”
The enemy is trying to make the people of God feel inferior and to get the eyes of the people of God off the Lord and onto their own selves. If we look at ourselves, if our eyes are on ourselves, we are feeble. Many of us are dusty, burned-out stones.
We do not have a lot of encouragement at times when we look at ourselves. But our eyes are on our King. As we keep our eyes upon Him, we can be encouraged and strengthened to continue on.
How the enemy is always trying to make little of, and make light of, what we are doing.
So often in this day in which we are living, we end up measuring success by numbers. You return to your home and say, “Well, we just came from a conference.” “How many people were there?” “Well, I don’t know, two or three hundred people.” “Oh, I was at a conference where there were five thousand.”
“How big is your meeting?” “Oh, we’ve got about twenty or thirty brothers and sisters meeting around together.” “Twenty or thirty? We’ve got six meetings a day.”
The issue is not the size. The issue is the Lord’s presence. Praise God that there were those like at Jerusalem in the beginning who had three thousand together, and the Lord was there and His headship was manifest.
It is better to have that than even just fifteen who are meeting on their own with the Lord not there. The issue is not the size; the issue is the Lord’s presence.
But so often we find ourselves in a smaller environment, and the world—the pressure of the world in this day—tries to make us demean what the Lord is doing. Our Lord is about a great work.
Nehemiah testifies of this later in chapter 6. Our Lord is doing a great work in this hour. If we have been brought into seeing the greatness of what He is doing, that is why the enemy is trying to make these accusations.
Nehemiah does not respond to the people at this time; he does not respond to the enemy. He says in verse 4, “Hear, O our God, for we are despised.” He falls before the Lord in prayer.
He does not defend himself. He does not try to justify himself. He does not get into a debating contest. He simply goes before the Lord and says, “Hear, O our God.” Lord, You defend Your interest. Praise God, He does.
The people continue building, even in the midst of discouragement. But even with that, the intensity of the enemy continues to grow, as we see in Nehemiah 4:7-8.
Now you have Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, and they have heard what is going on. They are conspiring together. There is this conspiracy.
Brothers and sisters, there is a conspiracy against what the Lord is doing in our midst. The enemy is conspiring in this hour, and we need to be aware of it.
Praise God, this is what we can see in Nehemiah. Starting in verse 9 to the end of the chapter, their eyes are open to watch and pray. It says, “We prayed unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night.”
Are we watching and praying? There is a conspiracy out there, and we need to be aware of his tactics. As they watched and prayed, the enemy was planning an attack, but through prayer it got revealed.
It became known to the Jews what the enemy’s tactics were. Because they were in that right place before the Lord, dependent upon Him in prayer, they were able to see those tactics, stand, and address them.
All around the city, all the families are getting together, each one fighting for one another—not just fighting for their own family. Yes, we do that, but they are fighting for one another, for other houses, for their brothers and sisters and their homes.
Yes, we fight for our family, but how we need to be fighting for one another in this hour.
It is a precious testimony in verse 15:
And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.
God frustrated their plans. What did the people of God do? They fell on their faces before the Lord. They inquired of Him. The Lord gave them a way of approaching the problem—watching and praying—and praise God, the enemy’s plans were frustrated.
From then on, there is this building with one hand and fighting with the other. In the days we are living in, this is the call the Lord has upon us. Together, we are fighting for one another. We are fighting for the Lord’s interests. We are building together for the Lord’s interest.
The precious thing in Nehemiah is that there are no lone rangers. There are no lone rangers. There are no soldiers who can safely stand alone. The easiest way for a soldier to get picked off is just being out there by himself.
If we think we stand, we are going to fall. If we think, “Ah, I am a strong enough Christian. I can stand by myself,” no, we are not.
Any of us need the Lord to strengthen us to be with brothers and sisters in the days we are living in, so that He can accomplish and do His work in our lives.
As we come to Nehemiah 5, there is a little bit of a change in focus. In chapter 5, the enemy is not mentioned at all. There is no mention of the enemy in chapter 5.
What is the problem in chapter 5? Brothers and sisters are taking advantage of each other. Some who perhaps have a little more are taking advantage of those who do not have as much.
Nehemiah, when he sees this, is appalled. One of the things we can see throughout church history and amongst the people of God is that what does more damage to the testimony of the Lord is corruption within. It does far more damage than persecution from without.
You can see throughout history, even in modern times, how when the church of God—the testimony of Jesus—is persecuted, it is strengthened. There is a strengthening there.
But once the persecution goes away and our own self-life becomes manifest, there is corruption within. It does far more damage to the testimony of Jesus than anything of the enemy’s tactics.
May the Lord open our eyes. Yes, there is an enemy outside, but there is an enemy within. We need to have him dealt with as we deny ourselves daily and allow the cross to work within us.
If we really see that we are in this family of God, the body of Christ, the church of God together, we do not take advantage of one another. We are there to help one another. We lay our lives down for one another.
When ones are in a tough time, we come underneath to help them and strengthen them in the hour in which we are living.
As Nehemiah and the people of God get back in the right position, as they allow the Lord to do this purifying and strengthening work, we can see in chapter 6 how the tactics of the enemy continue. They continue to intensify, and the tactics change from time to time.
The enemy tries one tactic, and that does not work. He tries another tactic, and that does not work. In our naivety, we can think, “Oh, we won. We beat him. We drove him away.” He is just going to try another tactic.
We come here to chapter 6, and what is the focus of the enemy? Who is he really focusing upon? Those who are functioning in leadership. His attack is now focused upon Nehemiah.
Brothers and sisters, if we have those who are desiring to function in the capacity where the Lord has them, in a place of responsibility and leadership, we need to be praying for them. There is a tremendous battle over leadership within the house of God today.
I am not talking about positions, titles, or anything like that. I am talking about those who are living and functioning in those places. There is a tremendous battle.
This is where the enemy comes in and focuses upon Nehemiah. He tries to persuade Nehemiah: “Come on down and talk with us.” Nehemiah has enough spiritual sense and intuition to know they only intended harm.
He says, “Oh no, I am not coming down there.” He allows the Lord to defend him. He says, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”
He saw the great work that he was involved in. As we see the great work, would the Lord open our eyes to see the great work that He is doing in this day and the privilege we have of entering into that?
The enemy is so persistent. He sends the messages four times to try to get Nehemiah down. That does not work, so he tries another tactic. If he cannot get Nehemiah directly, what does he do? They send an open letter to all the people.
This letter goes out to the people in Jerusalem saying, “This Nehemiah is not really there for what you think he is. He is not there for God’s interest. He is there only for his own interest. He is the one wanting to set up his own kingdom, rule over you, and have his own domain.”
Nehemiah testifies here, at the end of verse 9, in the midst of this: “O Lord, strengthen my hands.”
O Lord, strengthen my hands. The Lord reveals true motives. He exposes the lies of the enemy. But Nehemiah does not try to battle; he just says, “Lord, strengthen my hands.”
Even then, the enemy does not give up. He tries another subtle way. A so-called prophet of God comes in and says, “Nehemiah, come over here. It is getting a little tough. Your life is in danger. Let me show you how you can be protected. Come over here. Let’s go together and hide over here, and you will be safe.”
But Nehemiah had his sensing. He said, “This is not the Lord.” Nehemiah was in a right relationship with the Lord so that he could know the Lord’s voice.
The voice he was hearing through this so-called prophet of God was not the voice with which he was familiar. There are a lot of voices in this hour. Do we know the voice of our Shepherd? Do we know His voice?
There are some who try to use His name and come in to draw us away. But He has His way. How we need to know the voice of our beloved Lord in the hour in which we are living, because the enemy is trying to distract us in so many ways.
One of the beautiful things we see here, as we come to the end of chapter 6, is this great testimony that the wall of God is completed. The wall is completed.
If you look at verse 16, the testimony goes out that all the enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding it lost their confidence, for they recognized that this work had been accomplished by our God.
They saw. There was a testimony. As we have talked about how we are to be a testimony of God to the nations, even the enemy could recognize that this work was done by God.
Now, had the Lord come down in physical form and done any building on this wall? In this time, He had not. But brothers and sisters, through our hands, in the days we are living in—Christ in us, Christ in you, Christ in me—as we are building together, there is a testimony that goes out that this work is being done by our God.
That is the testimony. It is wonderful here too, as we have talked about having the sword and the trowel in our hands: did the people of God, in the first six chapters of Nehemiah, ever have to use the sword?
They had the sword, but they physically never had to use it. They were in their rightful place. They put God in His rightful place, and it released the power of God to move in that situation.
When we find ourselves in the midst of warfare, God is always in His rightful place. We need to be in our rightful place. As we are in our rightful place, in a rightful condition before Him, it releases the power of God to come into the situation and deal with it.
Too often we try to fight the battles for the Lord. We are not wrestling with flesh and blood. Now, we do know throughout the history of Israel that at times there were those who went out to battle. There are different tactics at different times.
But the key is that we are in our rightful place, and there is that right relationship, so there can be the release of the power of His life to come in. Then His testimony is established, and His will is done upon this earth as it is in heaven.
As we said, the second part of Nehemiah—let me see, I have done about an hour. I did the first half, so nobody’s going anywhere. We have another hour here. Relax. That is the joke.
But as we come to the second part of Nehemiah, we can see that the Lord has not finished. He is interested in our lives together.
If you look at chapter 8, it deals with how the Word of God strengthened the people; it brought the Lord into the situation. Chapter 9 deals with how, through prayer, the Lord was brought into the situation. In chapters 9 and 10, the people responded.
There are a couple points I want to make, and I would like for you just to consider them later.
If you look at the beginning of chapter 7, after the wall was built, what did Nehemiah do? He set up the gatekeepers and the watchmen.
One of the greatest functions within the house of God today that we need is gatekeepers. We need watchmen.
We let our doors be wide open. Anything comes in; anything can go out. We need those gatekeepers.
One of the precious things about gatekeepers: do you know who these gatekeepers were? The gatekeepers were of the tribe of Levi. They were spiritually trained.
They were spiritually trained to recognize what was of God and what was not. They were spiritually trained to say, “Yes, this should be in the city,” but, “No, it should not.”
Are we allowing ourselves in this hour to be spiritually trained, so that we can recognize what is to be in and what is not? In our weakened condition, we have allowed too much in—things that are not of Him—because we have not recognized it.
Maybe they came in in a cloak, in sheep’s clothing, or in a cloak of Christianity. But we need to be those who can discern.
There is a precious thing about the watchmen too. The watchmen are not only looking outward. Remember in the Song of Solomon, there are the watchmen going around the city. Maybe some things got in, but praise God, He has His watchmen going around.
If we are honest, most of us do not like watchmen. We do not want somebody telling us things or pointing things out. But the watchmen of the Lord have that love, and they have God’s interest at heart.
May we allow the Lord to raise up within us, within our assemblies, those who are gatekeepers and those who are watchmen. Yes, the doors are open to everyone.
But sometimes some of us need to shake off the dirt of our feet and get some things settled before we really come in.
There is this ministry of gatekeeping, this ministry of watching, that we really need to ask the Lord to raise up and recover. We should also submit ourselves to and honor that function within the house of God.
It also talks about the city in Nehemiah 11. It talks about how blessed were those who chose to live in the city, because it is the focal point of the enemy’s attack.
Each one of us sits here today, and we have a choice: where are we going to live?
Are we going to live outside the city in our own comfort, or are we going to choose to live within the city of God, where the most intense battle in history is going on?
There are a lot of wars going on upon this earth at this moment, but there is a far more intense battle going on over the testimony of Jesus than any physical war upon this earth in this hour.
But praise God, we already know Who has won. We are on the Victor’s side, and He has made every provision for us in Christ Jesus.
We see that there is such a battle over the city and over the testimony. We say, “It is not safe there.” It is not safe not to be there.
We are only kidding ourselves when we think it is safer somewhere else. “I can live a little peaceful life, and allow the Lord—just me and the Lord—to go on.” No, the Lord is calling us.
Have we lost our sense of calling, that calling that captured us years ago? Have we lost that sense of forsaking things and making those choices within our life so that we can live within the city of God?
There is a price to be paid within the city. It will cost you your life. It will cost you your self-life.
But as we allow the cross to work, there is an exceeding greatness. There is an exceedingly marvelous treasure within this earthen vessel that bursts forth in a way that we see, as we gather, a small glimpse of eternity.
We glimpse a little bit of the joy set before us. In Nehemiah it says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength,” and I think we devalue that statement far too much. We think of it as happiness.
There is the joy of the Lord in His people being reunited. There is the joy of the Lord in His heart being satisfied. There is the joy of the Lord in His people returning to choose to live where He has put His name.
There is the joy of the Lord in summing up all things in His Son. That is the strength by which we can be strengthened in these days, as we have that greater revelation of Himself.
We can know of that joy that is far more than just happiness. There is a strengthening from within that comes.
Now we know in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that there was not a full recovery. The altar was there, but the glory of God did not descend as it did upon the temple and the tabernacle. But there was the presence of God. That was the place where He put His name.
As the Lord calls us in this hour, He is simply calling us to return and live in that simplicity of our purity and devotion to Him, that we as the people of God would be a testimony unto Him in the hour in which we are living.
Lord, we thank You that we can have this opportunity, and we want to redeem the time.
I used to teach time management when I was with KPMG. I taught time-management sessions. Now, among believers, I wish I had more time. Do not raise your hand, but if you would like to, I have got you. He is telling me I have not got a lot of time.
But how often do we say, “I wish I could spend more time with the Lord”? I am not going to ask people to raise their hands, because it is a trick question.
We all say, “I wish I could spend more time with the Lord.” But actually, that is an impossibility. He is with you twenty-four-seven now.
He never leaves us, never forsakes us. We cannot spend any more time with Him. He is always with us.
But how about the quality of the time we have?
Would His life, His love for us, and His desire for His people capture us in such a way? The Lord is always far more interested in quality. He is looking for the quality of His life within us—the quality of His life within the people.
That we would be those who testify of Who He is, of what He has done, and of what He is coming back for. He is doing a work in this hour of preparing His bride.
We simply want to allow Him to strengthen those things that remain through a greater revelation of His beloved Son.
Lord, we thank You that You do still speak to us in this hour. We thank You that it is still today.
Lord, we want to offer ourselves to You, that in the days we are living in, You could be working within us—working within us a greater revelation of Your Son—that Your life within us individually and together might be strengthened.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.