Well, good morning.
I’d like to ask you to turn with me once again to a verse—a single verse—in the New Testament, and then we’ll read several places from the Old Testament.
Revelation 19:10. I think most of you know this verse by now.
We will begin—as you know, this is about John, who fell down before the angel to worship. I just want to read beginning in verse 10:
And I fell before his feet to do him homage.
And he saith unto me, See thou do it not:
I am thy fellow bondman, and fellow bondman of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.
Do homage to God.
For the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.
And then in Psalm 78, I’ll read again a phrase—or part of a phrase—that was on my heart last week. Psalm 78:5, just the first phrase:
For He established a testimony in Jacob.
Now turn with me to where it is really on my heart this morning: Nehemiah. I will read just several places, and I would like you to follow along.
Nehemiah 1:1-4:
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
And it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the fortress, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah.
And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, who 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; and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Verse 11 in the same chapter—well, let me move on. Let me not read verse 11. Let me turn just to Nehemiah 6. I will share these as we go along.
Nehemiah 6:15-16, speaking of the wall again:
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.
And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that were round about us feared, and were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was wrought by our God.
Let’s just have a word of prayer.
Lord, we come to You once again. We thank You for Your Word, but we really want to have the Holy Spirit take this Word this morning and make it alive to us.
As we always say, as we bow before You, You alone, Lord, have the words of eternal life. We wait in Your presence, and we ask You this day that You would take Your written Word and breathe on it, breathe life into it, and cause our spirit to be open to what the Spirit says to the churches in this hour.
We do not want to be those that are dull of hearing. We want to be those that have an ear to hear. We want to be those that know what the Lord is saying.
So we pray in the name of Jesus that You would take Your Word, breathe upon it, and open it to our very hearts this morning. How we need Your anointing to do that. We ask for that in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, Keene was right that I will continue this morning sharing on this matter of the testimony of Jesus.
Most of you who were here, at least, remember that two weeks ago I began sharing on this thought of God’s testimony. Let me speak to you again for a moment in review about the genesis of this burden.
It was this phrase in the book of Revelation, in Revelation 19:10. It occurs again in Revelation 12—I think verse 17, but I may not be recalling the exact verse—but it speaks of those that have the testimony of Jesus.
Several months ago, I began meditating and considering that word, and that word began to be living to me. It seems to me, just using a play on words—Revelation is the last book of the Bible—in the end, I think what matters is this: Do we have the testimony of Jesus?
It is not enough to just know about the testimony of Jesus. It is not enough to go to conferences about the testimony of Jesus. It is not enough to have some insight where we can talk about all the principles of the testimony of Jesus.
That particular and peculiar phrase, I think, has real depth and meaning to the church in our day. When it came to the remnant of the woman’s seed in Revelation 12, or when it came to speaking of the bride in the end, in the wedding feast, the issue that came to the fore was the ones that have the testimony of Jesus.
Now, that was the genesis of this burden.
I think most of you remember how we read from the Amplified Version, where it explains that phrase in greater detail: “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
I like the way it is in the Amplified Version. It says:
For the substance, the essence of the truth revealed by Jesus, is the spirit of all prophecy—the vital breath, the inspiration of all inspired preaching, and the interpretation of the divine will and purpose.
All of God’s heart is wrapped up, if I can use that expression, in the end, in this singular expression. For those of us, this is what I believe—at least as far as I can see—the burden the Lord has laid on my heart: Do we have the testimony of Jesus?
Now again, as far as review goes, we said we were going to take just three times and look at a broad view of the Word of God, beginning with the Old Testament.
When God first raised up a people, when He first called to Himself a people, what was the purpose of that people? We read that phrase once again from Psalm 78:5: God established a testimony in Jacob.
Israel—the very purpose of Israel, the reason for Israel, the existence of Israel—was that in that people would be expressed a living testimony of who God was and what He was like.
In that corporate expression, not one man, not a few great patriarchs, not a few priests, but together, that company of redeemed ones would express the fullness of what His testimony is.
Even today, the Jews are still referred to as the people of God. Now, I do not want to get into a political debate, but I want to say first and foremost: what God was after in His people was an expression of Himself, a corporate expression.
That is the first movement of God that we see in the Bible when it deals with His people corporately. We called that the testimony revealed.
Now today, what we really want to look at is the testimony recovered. If the Lord is gracious to us, then one more time we will look at the testimony realized in the New Testament.
In the end, God is a God of recovery.
I think many of us do not realize that the book of Nehemiah is the last of the historical books in the Bible. We look at where it is placed before the Psalms, and then we begin to wonder, “Now wait a minute. It must be very early in chronology.”
But when you understand, it is the very last historical book in all of the Old Testament.
Brothers and sisters, I think the fact that it is the last historical book in the Old Testament means that we, as the people of God called to be vessels of the testimony of Jesus, ought to pay attention to that last movement of God.
It must have some lesson for us. It must have some meaning for us. It must be some word for us, since it was the last movement of God in the Old Testament.
I think of this verse in the New Testament. If you would like to turn, you can. It is in 1 Corinthians 10:11:
Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
This is the explanation of all of the Old Testament. The things that were written about them were, in fact, written for us, for our admonition. They were types. They were illustrations, if you like that word.
They spoke of God’s heart and what He was after in His people, and they have been written to us upon whom the end of the ages has come.
This is why we need to pay attention to Nehemiah’s last word to this Old Testament people. So that is where we are headed this morning: to look into Nehemiah and to consider several things.
First of all, I think everybody knows—or most of you know—what the book of Nehemiah is about. It is about the rebuilding of the wall.
You might think, “Well, what does rebuilding a wall have to do with us?” But the wall is more than just a wall. The wall defines what the city of God is. The wall delineates what the city of God is.
In that walled city is the expression of who God is. In that walled city, the people of God live together, meet together, worship together, work together, and serve together.
It is that walled city that is the expression of God’s testimony in the Old Testament. That is the first thing: it has everything to do with us.
You might think, “Well, these are great stories, but what on earth does it have to do with us—building a wall, removing the rubble, and fighting with a spear or a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other hand?”
What on earth could it have to do with us? Dear ones, I think that it has, in fact, everything to do with us.
Unless we see God’s heart for the city, we will never understand the testimony. You will never get it. You will never get it.
I think in the New Testament—I will just read you a verse. When the Lord Jesus was in Luke 13:34, contemplating His end, His death, and His sacrifice, and He thought about all the prophets being killed in Jerusalem, He looked at Jerusalem and said:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee!
How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her own brood under her wings, and ye would not!
Now, what does that mean? I think what you see in that is God’s love for the city. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you!” You see His love for the city.
Think of Abraham. That is another example. Our brother Jerry shared in the planning session on Abraham and the city. We read of the first great patriarch, and the thing that motivated him, when it is summarized in the New Testament, says in Hebrews that he looked for the city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
He had a love for the city.
Now here is the question, in this introduction: Do we have a love for the city?
Do you have a love for the city of God? Is that an impression the Lord has made on your heart? Can you live without the city?
Are you a hermit? I think many Christians are hermits.
I remember growing up, we had a hermit who lived in the woods. He lived all by himself. It was a great thing for kids, especially mischievous little boys.
We used to creep up on the hermit just to get a look at him. We would crawl through the woods like we were in some great war, just to get a peek at the hermit. Actually, one time the hermit shot his shotgun over our heads.
The hermit did not like being with anybody—alone in this world.
Here is the point: Do you love the city? God loves the city.
There in Jerusalem is His heart. There in Jerusalem is the expression of the testimony of God. There in Jerusalem, as we turn to the last book of the Old Testament, we see all of God’s energies devoted to the recovery of the testimony in this city.
That is why this book means much to us.
I will never forget—I think it was last year or the year before; London, you can help me—we were in New York, actually Long Island.
But even out toward the end of Long Island, everybody talks about New York like it is this grand place. They all say, “The city.” I learned this—I am a slow Southerner, so you have to bear with me—but everybody just said, “The city.”
I said, “What are they talking about, the city?” To all of them, the city was everything. They loved the smells. They loved the sights. They loved the sounds.
Those people who love New York—you can almost hear “New York, New York” in the background as they spoke about it. “There is nothing like this city. Everything you could want is in this city. Everything is there. It is the city that never sleeps.”
That is a poor illustration, but I wonder if we see the city of God. It is the city.
There is a greater question in Nehemiah: Are you in the city? There were those who would not come into the city.
I believe it is God’s heart concerning His testimony that we would be within the walls of that city, for there is the expression of God.
Now, that is really introduction. I want everybody to have a sense of God’s love for the city. I am not sure we do. I am not sure I have an adequate sense of the love of the city.
When I read the Lord pouring out His passion and saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” when I read of Abraham, whose whole life was a journey looking for this city, I wonder if I have that same heart.
I believe in the end, that is where the expression is.
Now, I want us to look at three different things. Let us begin with chapter 1 of the book of Nehemiah.
There is one vital thing that I want us to consider first of all, and it speaks of Nehemiah. If you do not understand this first principle of recovery, you will not understand anything about recovery.
I believe this with all of my heart. If you allow me, I am going to enlarge upon it and hope you see that it was more than Nehemiah. It is the principle that God uses whenever He recovers something. It is the principle He uses in every work, and it is what is required of the people of God.
That principle is this: first of all, He is looking for those who have a concern for the testimony. That is what Nehemiah was. That is what Nehemiah was.
Above everything else, he had a concern for the testimony.
Look at chapter 2, verse 10. It speaks of the enemies that were so against this recovery, and it speaks of the truth of Nehemiah:
And when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
Let me read that again, just that last phrase: “It grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.”
Brothers and sisters, I think this is the first principle of recovery. God, who is the God of recovery, and in the end is going to recover His testimony in all its fullness, first of all is looking for those who have the same burden and the same heart.
The word that I have used is this word: concern for the testimony of God. That makes the difference. That is what separated Nehemiah. That is what marked his life.
I do not know what you know about Nehemiah. We could read many verses, but Nehemiah had a tremendously cushy job, if I hope that is not too elemental or sophomoric to use that word “cushy.” He had the dream job.
The other day I was reading, I think it was USA Today, and they said four out of five Americans do not have the dream job. Now, I do not know. You may have the dream job. Some days I think I have the dream job; other days I wish I had never heard of my job.
But Nehemiah had the best job you could have. He was the king’s cupbearer.
You may say, “Well, that is not a big deal, carrying the king’s cup around.” But he was in the palace. He had everything he needed. All the wealth of the palace was at his disposal. Everything the king owned was at his disposal.
All he had to do, as the confidant of the king, was say, “King, I am your cupbearer.” What a cushy job. He had the best job that could be had, probably in that captivity—or certainly one of the best.
You might argue with me a little bit because there was a downside to being the king’s cupbearer. All is not what it appears to be, because he had to taste the wine before it was given to the king. If the wine was poisoned, he was the former king’s cupbearer. You understand?
But just take a lesson from this: all is not rosy, even in the best of the best. A little sidebar—I do not want you to get hung up there—but you may think you have the best of the best, and all is not rosy and pleasant.
Here is what we want to see: this man was so moved with the condition of God’s people, so moved with the testimony of God, so concerned with the testimony of God, that this man, Nehemiah, gave up everything to go back to that ruin that was Jerusalem.
Now, that is amazing.
Great leaders pay a great cost.
Without cost, there is nothing of value. I think this, brothers and sisters, and maybe I can dwell here a moment: it seems in our generation, as Christians, we have lost the sense of cost.
You cannot have anything of value. You cannot be of any effect in the eternal things of God unless you are willing to pay a cost.
I heard the other day about the largest church building in the United States. Thousands gather there—thousands. I cannot imagine it. Thousands every week gather there.
All the ones who have, I believe, some real insight said there is a secret to the reason everybody wants to be there: no cross, no sin, no sacrifice, no suffering.
Brothers and sisters, if God is going to do as He did with Nehemiah and put in your heart this concern for the testimony of God, you must first of all be willing to pay the cost.
Now, I hope everybody is not getting depressed. When I turn to Philippians and see what the apostle Paul wrote, he said, “I have suffered the loss of all,” and then he said, “to gain Christ.”
In the final analysis, when we discover all that we have in the Lord Jesus, all that God has provided for us in His Son, there is no cost. There is no loss. It is only gain.
But those whom the Lord calls, those in whose heart the Lord can deposit this burden for the testimony of Jesus, need to be willing to pay the cost.
I wonder—I do not know if that is too heavy for you this morning.
I believe God is calling us back to Himself. I believe in the end there will not be any real recovery unless God discovers vessels that share His same concern.
I believe in the end those who make a difference will be those who are willing to pay the cost. That is Nehemiah.
One sobering thing that I read in this book of Nehemiah, and I believe it is a sobering thing we should take into account, is that the testimony of God can be lost.
You might take exception to me on that, but Israel—the children of Israel—are a perfect illustration that the testimony of God can be lost. It is a fragile thing.
The Lord prophesied over and over. He said, “If you turn from Me, and you go to idols, and you live for yourselves, and you do all these things,” it would be lost.
I believe the testimony can be lost.
Now, let me make an exception to that. God’s testimony can never be lost. Let me explain the difference, because you may think I just threw you a big curve.
God’s testimony can never be lost because God Himself, in the whole realm of things, is the expression of that testimony. In Him all the fullness dwells. He is the full expression of that testimony—God Himself.
So, in one sense, the testimony of God can never be lost. But the expression on the earth can be lost.
When you read the book of Nehemiah, you discover this phrase, which we have already read: “the God of the heavens.” Have you ever wondered about that phrase?
It does not just occur in Nehemiah. It occurs three times in the book of Nehemiah. He says, “I prayed to the God of the heavens.”
In the books of the captivity—in Daniel—this phrase occurs seven times. In the book of Ezra, in the first return, in the first recovery, it occurs seven times.
What does that mean, “the God of the heavens”?
It means this: as far as the expression among His people, the testimony was lost. But as far as the expression of God, it can never be lost. Do you follow me?
I hope I have not confused you. But what God is after is a full testimony where what is true in Himself is expressed corporately in and through His people.
This is the recovery of the testimony of God.
Let me, in the second chapter of Nehemiah, read a few verses—verses 11 and 12:
And I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem.
We had already read about how he was brokenhearted over the condition of things. “I told no man what God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.”
This is what it means to have a concern. God is looking today for Nehemiahs.
He is looking for people in whose hearts He can put something, people who can see the captivity of the people of God, the confusion of things, the condition of things, and out of that begin to be exercised that there would be a recovery unto God’s full heart and full thought.
That is what it means to have a concern.
As I thought about this and prayed about this, I thought about the difference between being a critic and being one concerned.
Brothers and sisters, I feel the church is full of critics. They all know what is wrong. They all see the issues—well, they think they do. They all can recite what they think should be done.
But God is not interested in critics.
God is interested in those who are concerned for the testimony of God.
“It grieved them exceedingly that there had come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.”
This is the first point. I do not know if you get it the way it hit me, but this is my prayer: “Lord, would You so move in my life, in our life, that we would be this kind of people—people concerned for Your interest, people who have a burden?”
If you want to know what a burden is—I know I may be tweaking some people, so forgive me if I tweak you this morning—but those who react to certain words like “burden,” do not be so put off by that word.
If we use it too much for you, we are sorry, but it is still a very valuable word. Burden, one brother put it, is just the echo of the heart of God.
Think of it in that way. God finds in some—or in one—those in whom He can find the echo of the heart of God. In that, He has a vessel of recovery.
This reminds me of our early history. I remember, if you do not mind me going back and illustrating, there were a few—some of you do not know it. Some of you are relatively new, and some of you, like me, have been here many years and may have even forgotten.
Years ago, there were several sisters who were very elderly to me. I remember they were fifty years old, I think. I think Stephen was fifty-eight. I am not sure. That was old to me.
God began, I believe, to awaken in those dear ones a concern. He began to awaken in them an overriding interest that exceeded their own comfort and exceeded what they were after—what they wanted.
That thing—that echo, that burden, if you will—began to press on them and weigh on them. They began to travail before the God of the heavens and say, “Would You raise up in Richmond a testimony unto Your name?”
Now, I remember this very well. Now I am fifty-five. Some of the young people in this room are saying, “Who is that old man?”
But I believe this is the beginning of real recovery.
Are there those with whom God can share His heart?
I remember some of our early prayer meetings. I have never experienced anything like that. I remember one night we prayed for three hours, absent of praying for any of our needs or any of our interests.
We were pouring out our hearts and saying, “Lord, Your name is worthy of this. Would You raise up in this city, in this place among Your people, that corporate expression that You are after?”
I remember it. I perceived that these were ones raised up with a concern.
So this is the first point.
The second point has to do with the construction of the wall.
I think everyone should know that Nehemiah deals with the construction of the wall. That is the next thing that comes into view.
This wall was actually built. Some people talk about the testimony of Jesus as if it is like the theory of relativity or something—as though it is a theory.
Some people muse and dwell on it, talk about it, and can quote different things about the testimony of Jesus as though it is a topic.
It is not a topic.
In the end, I think the lesson from Nehemiah is that the testimony is to be actually built. The question that comes out so clearly in this book is: Will we be part of that testimony?
You have to remember the history of recovery in the Old Testament. The people of God were in Babylon according to their own disobedience. For seventy years, millions were taken into Babylon, along with all the treasures of Israel and all the treasures of the temple.
When the call went out from Cyrus king of Persia, the sovereign call of God, fifty thousand responded.
I think if most of us were statisticians, we would say that was a supreme disappointment. How could it be? If the call of God went out, and millions were in captivity, and only fifty thousand responded—that is amazing to me.
But this is the secret. First of all, when He comes to recovering the Lord’s testimony, God moves sovereignly. That is first of all, just as He did with Cyrus king of Persia.
Can you imagine a Gentile king? If you read Ezra—and we do not have time—but if you read Ezra 1, he says:
The God of heaven hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem.
Whosoever there is among you of all His people, let him go up to Jerusalem, and build the house of the Lord.
The sovereign move of God.
But then you discover this second principle: there is the response of man.
We often talk about the sovereign move of God. We often say, “If only God would move among us and display His power and His might, then we would have the testimony of Jesus.”
But brothers and sisters, that is not what it says in these ending books. There has to be a response.
God is calling and always looking for response. Though that response be meager and be a few, in those whom God can find among His own who have in their hearts the recovery of God’s testimony, He will do a work.
It is these two things—the sovereignty of God and the response of men—that we see in the end of the Old Testament. Together, those two principles result in the testimony of God being recovered.
So this wall is actually to be built. It is not to be some theory. It is not to be some idea. We, as the people of God, are to be part of that living expression.
I think this is very important for us to see. I remember in Ephesians 2:21-22, it talks about the house of God. It talks about being fitted together and being built together, a holy habitation for God in the Spirit.
You know that verse. I think everybody knows that verse. But notice what it says: “being fitted together” and “built together,” a holy habitation for God in the Spirit.
This may be too simple for you. This may be way too simple. This will be the most profound thing I am going to say this morning: for us to be built and for us to be fitted, we must be together.
Now, is that so complicated? Some people say the Bible is so complicated. I do not think the Bible is complicated.
Paul said this is the secret of the purpose of God: to be fitted together, to be built together, means that we are to be together.
When you read the book of Nehemiah, you discover that this is a principle of recovery: being together. Simply being together in the Lord.
As they were together in the Lord, and as God registered in them His burden and His heart, He began to do a great and remarkable work of recovery where He was expressed.
Now turn with me to a phrase that I think brings this to the fore. It is a principle of recovery; without it there can be none.
Nehemiah 3:2:
And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next unto them builded Zaccur the son of Imri.
Verse 4: “And next unto them repaired Meremoth.” “And next unto them repaired Meshullam.” “And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.”
Verse 5: “And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.”
Have you thought about that? I have often thought about that verse. There are some of us who feel we are above getting our hands dirty. We think we are noble. They did not put their necks to the work of the Lord.
I believe in these ones there was no expression.
But look at that phrase. It continues. Verse 7: “And next unto them repaired Melatiah.” Verse 8: “And next unto them repaired Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths; and next unto him repaired Hananiah, one of the perfumers.”
You may think this is just unnecessary repetition, but dear brothers and sisters, this is not unnecessary repetition. When the Holy Spirit repeats this phrase again and again in Scripture, there is a message to us as the people of God.
“And next unto him.”
I would say this is the lesson: If there is going to be recovery, there has to be proximity.
I love people who come up to me and say, “Brother, I am right with you,” and I never see them. I love them, and I will never stop loving them.
But let me say this: those dear ones, though they may be dear to me, can say, “Brother, I am with you in spirit.” If they are not with me in labor and in service, then together, that expression that God is doing among us cannot be built.
This phrase the Holy Spirit captures again and again: “next to him, next to him.” Then when you go into the next chapter, you begin to see it changed: “after him repaired,” and “after him repaired,” and “after him repaired,” over and over again.
The secret of recovery is being together in the Lord’s purpose. There is no shortcut.
Can you imagine those in Babylon just writing love letters to the ones in Jerusalem? “We are with you, brother. Keep building. Keep building.”
The secret is proximity. I believe this is a key.
Recently—let me illustrate with this, and then I will close this point—some of you know I got my master’s degree as an older man, not long ago, through what they call distance education.
I love distance education. I think it is a great concept. But when I got that degree, I hardly ever went to school. As a matter of fact, many of the professors did not even know what I looked like.
Well, some of them had to send me a picture because they wanted to know what I looked like. I am sure they were shocked by the gray beard, but they did not know, along with those twenty-somethings, who this old guy was.
I never had any direct interchange with them in person, but I got the degree.
Now, I am not saying it is a fake degree. Do not get me wrong. I mean, you can buy a degree online for ten dollars. This is a real degree, by the way.
But I was infrequently there. As a matter of fact, I thought, because I am getting a degree, I ought to go sometimes. So I elected to go there and take several courses actually on site, believe it or not.
They were probably shocked to see me. I stopped doing it after a while because I was older than the professors. The professors used to say, “Mr. Pittman, what do y’all do when you really design buildings?”
I will never forget. I found out that was not a good thing—to be singled out. I never wanted to sit on the front row, and I never raised my hand. It is my one rule in education: never ask a question. That is the way—just get through.
Distance education.
As a matter of fact, I took a course at NC State. I have never seen NC State. I cannot tell you what NC State looks like. The professor never knew what I looked like. I never had any direct contact with him other than by telephone and email.
Distance education.
I wonder if some believers believe in distance testimony.
I wonder. Seldom here, infrequent visitors.
You know, I am probably going to get in trouble, but I am going to finish and go to the next point. If you are often introduced as a visitor, that ought to be a clue. That is just one of those little bits of wisdom.
If building the testimony of God requires being together—now, I have heard people say, “Oh, you are just talking about meetings. You are just talking about meetings.”
I am not just talking about meetings.
I will never forget, one of our brothers here with us said something years ago that changed my life. He said what God had put into his heart was that whenever the people of God were assembled, if at all possible, there you would find him.
I took that as a direct word from the Lord.
“Next to him.” To me, this is the secret.
Now let me close with this final point. When you speak about the testimony of God and the recovery of that testimony, there is one final point that seems to come out to me, and that is the conflict over the work.
Brothers and sisters, there is a tremendous conflict over the testimony of God.
I cannot imagine those folks in Babylon who did not return and had no heart for the house experiencing any appreciable conflict.
But when you read the book of Nehemiah, you begin to see the outrage of the enemy. You begin to see the direct assault of the enemy. You begin to see the persistent assault of the enemy against the expression of the testimony of God.
When you read these pages, there is a wonderful phrase that summarizes what all of it is about: to put an end to the work.
That is what it is all about. That is the focus of all the attack of the enemy. All of his distractions, all of his movements, all of his workings are to, in fact, stop the work.
Look up that phrase in Nehemiah.
You see these characters. Some of the names may not mean anything to you: Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian. You see these ones, and they may not mean anything to you, but they were real men. They were right there in their midst.
These guys, let me tell you, constantly tried to stop what God was doing. Constantly.
They had a problem when they did things this way. They had a problem when Nehemiah did things that way. They accused Nehemiah of trying to make himself a king. They tried to discourage the people of God. They tried to put the people of God in fear.
They tried every possible way, with one purpose in view: to stop the work.
When you read Nehemiah—well, let me back up. I will illustrate a little further.
Nehemiah, one time—I think it is in Nehemiah 6, on the plains of Ono—they said, “Why do you not come down, and we will talk?”
A lot of people like to talk. “Why do you not come down? We will talk about it. Let us talk about it.” Sounds like a good thing to do.
Nehemiah’s response was this:
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?
You may think, “What an un-Christian attitude.”
Brothers and sisters, I believe we need to see what the work of God is. I believe that burden has to get into our hearts. I believe we have to be practically related in living relationship to the saints.
I believe the enemy is out to crush any expression he finds like that among God’s people. That is the book of Nehemiah.
It is terrific assault: opposition by ridicule and anger; opposition by discouragement; opposition by selfishness; opposition by craftiness; opposition by fear.
They tried every way, these men. But thank God that Nehemiah did not give in.
That seems to me to be the clear thing. But this is the point: where there is a recovery work of God, there will be great opposition to it.
Every great work of God will encounter great opposition. I remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:9:
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
That is what Nehemiah experienced.
Well, it seems to me that these are three great principles in Nehemiah.
As a matter of fact, he takes three responses to these attacks. We do not have time; I will just mention them.
First of all, he spoke the truth. He simply spoke the truth—what he was called to and what he was about. That was it. There was no argument. He just said, “This is what we have been called to.”
Secondly—and this is a principle that is always true in recovery—his response, and you see it on a number of occasions, was that when he was attacked, immediately they began to pray. Immediately.
It says, “And we prayed before the God of the heavens.” So, for me, I take that it was not just Nehemiah’s prayer, but that little remnant charged with being the vessel of this testimony.
Together they prayed and stood for the testimony of God in their midst. “We sought the God of the heavens.”
I think corporate prayer is what is needed in this day. I am amazed, dear ones, that not enough see the real burden for praying corporately. I am amazed at that.
I think of that story, and what I can relate it to is in Exodus. You remember when Moses was up on the mountain and his hands began to droop? You remember that story? I think it is Exodus 17.
You remember how Aaron and Hur came along to lift up his arms? You remember how Joshua was in the valley fighting Amalek? Is this ringing any bells to anyone here? Okay, some of you know the story.
The battle on the ground in the valley was determined by the position they took on the mount.
Now, that is a principle of corporate prayer. When his hands fell down, Amalek seemed to go to the fore. When his hands were lifted up—which I believe is an Old Testament illustration of corporate prayer—when his hands were lifted up by these men together, standing for what God was after, the enemy was overcome.
Ultimately, what determined the victory in the valley was the position on the mount.
To me, that is what we are called to do on Wednesday night. I wish this room were full.
I wish there were those so exercised who would say, “No matter what life delivers me, no matter what my schedule, no matter what my commitments, no matter what—I will be there, and I am determined to stand for the name of the Lord on this earth.”
I believe that is the second great response.
Finally, it tells the story of how they had a spear in one hand, or a sword in one hand, and a trowel in the other hand.
That is a very strange building site. I have never been on a building site where they had a trowel in one hand and a spear in the other hand. I have never seen it.
I have seen the night watchman with the gun, who sleeps most of the time eating doughnuts, but I have never seen a building site where the laborers had a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other hand.
But dear ones, this battle over the testimony of Jesus is so intense, we need to be armed with the full armor of God.
The apostle Paul, when he concluded that great book of Ephesians that uncovers to us the mystery hidden from the ages, concludes all of that book with this:
Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
…
That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
That is the third thing we need to do. In that, the testimony will be recovered.
Well, that is really the burden.
I will read one more verse. Turn to Nehemiah 6, because I think this, in conclusion, is the encouragement: chapter 6, verses 15 and 16.
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.
And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard thereof, that all the nations that were round about us feared, and were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was wrought by our God.
Brothers and sisters, this is the encouragement.
In the end, the testimony will be complete. That is good news.
The very name Nehemiah means “comfort of the Lord.” God’s comfort to us is that in the end, the testimony will be complete. That is good news.
In only fifty-two days.
I cannot imagine, if you ever take out one of these Old Testament maps and look at the wall of Jerusalem—all the gates destroyed, all the bars taken down, and the walls in ruin—and discover that in just fifty-two days they were able to rebuild completely the wall of testimony.
That is amazing. That is amazing by modern standards. We could not even get the plans approved in fifty-two days, and the design team would still be arguing about what the wall was to look like.
But in just fifty-two days, this wall was complete.
This is what Daniel meant: when God moves, none can stay His hand.
Well, that is Nehemiah.
What has God put in your heart? Are you concerned with God’s testimony? These are some questions I would like you to remember.
Are you concerned with His concern?
Number two: are you actively involved in what Nehemiah called this great work? Are you rightly related to your brothers and sisters in the construction of the wall?
No gaps. They all built. Even one of the rulers of the district was willing to build the dung gate. That is testimony.
Are you aware of that great conflict, and do you know the secret of overcoming?
Lord, we just come to You and ask of You that You would be able to speak to us again by Your Holy Spirit about what Your concerns are.
That You would be able to arrest our hearts just as You arrested Nehemiah’s heart. That we would be those—maybe it is only in a small way, but Lord, we ask that it would be in a great way—who see what You are after, and may it lay hold of us.
In all of our days, may we be willing to return and to pay the cost.
Lord, we commit these thoughts to You in Jesus’ name. We ask that You breathe on them and make them living, for we ask for Your name’s sake. Amen.