The wall is halfway up, but rubbish still heaps high, and the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed. In Nehemiah 4 the builders look away from what is already raised and declare they are not able—while those who mocked now gather to fight. How do you keep building when the work is unfinished and you are already spent?
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah. We will find ourselves in Nehemiah chapter 4 eventually. We’ll touch back to Nehemiah chapter 2 and the end of the words that were spoken there leading into the actual building part of the wall that Nehemiah is now leading. And we find where it all began in chapter 1 where he was broken and hearing of what has happened to the land and the condition that it was in.
Then, of course, he moves quickly into prayer and begging God not just for something, for things, but he starts with a repentant heart on the behalf of himself and his people for rejecting the Lord. And so we know it was Ezra helped lead them out, but it’s Nehemiah who helps to gather and rebuild and provide a security for the people and God chooses to use him for that.
And with the strength and the hand of God on Nehemiah’s life, he enters in the presence of whom he is the cupbearer for. He’s the king’s cupbearer. And the king recognizes in Nehemiah’s countenance, as the Bible says, that there is just something off or wrong with Nehemiah because that’s not the countenance he’s always carrying. And he asks Nehemiah to explain what’s going on in his heart and mind.
When he does, the king encourages him by granting him what he needs materially, permissibly, allowing him to go into the places that he needs to with the authority of the earthly king at that time. But Nehemiah never misses the idea that it’s not even that earthly king that’s allowing him to do this work, but it is truly a call of God on his life. And it’s the God of heaven, he says, and the hand of God on his life that is leading him and is going to allow them to prosper.
And that’s the encouragement of the words at the end of Nehemiah chapter 2, where he said in verse 17, “Then said I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.” Then I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me. As also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me.
Always take note in that verse where he puts the particular things he says in the right order. First, the hand of God that has been good upon me, then the king’s words that he’s given me to allow us to do this work.
We were talking about that with the teenagers this morning, and I’m not sure where you are. The Bible studies are a little different, but the same realities are given about how God’s always working. And the first priority in our life is to see the hand of God that He has been good upon us, even when you’re surrounded by distress.
Even when it looks like not just this world, as it always does, but maybe even your world may look as if it lieth waste, with no hope. And we could, and we have, and we do, when we get to talking about this current world. And we know that there is no political answer. We know there’s not even a good moral community effort answer to the waste of which this world lies in.
And it is the strength of the believer, the call on those who are to be the light of this world, and to speak truth, and to be courageous with the truth in which they speak. And that there is a work to be done, but it’s not even a functioning religious work. It’s the work of Almighty God, the God of heaven.
And as we enter into that, and we see the words and the confidence behind the words of Nehemiah, he finishes that as we read it as verse 18, but as it was recorded: “And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” That’s what we spoke on last week, the opportunity. As we have a heart to labor, we see the opportunity. And so with that, we strengthen our hands for this good work.
God’s work is always good, and God’s work is always going on. The devil uses the greatest tool of distraction that leads to destruction in our life and our world, so we can’t even see God at work in this world. We certainly can see the devil at work. We have all access to what the devil’s up to in this world. Maybe in general terms, or maybe in personal terms, you can say, I can see the devil working in my life.
We must, as Nehemiah has said, know I see the good hand of God at work as well. And that encourages the people around him to strengthen their hands or prepare themselves physically to get into and do this good work.
And then verse 19 is where a lot of us seem to be living sometimes, “But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said, what is this thing that you do? Would you rebel against the king?” Then answered I them. That’s where we need to be, must be ready to give an answer. That’s not always in a theological discussion, though we should be students of God’s Word so that we’re ready to give an answer, to show ourselves approved as we study out God’s Word for our life and ourself, but so that we can have those answers biblically speaking, not just our opinion, because that’s where we tend to draw to our own opinions, but also when challenged and when opposition comes, do we have an answer?
He said, then answered I them and said unto them, “The God of heaven.” That’s his answer. The God of heaven. Now he completes the thought by saying he will prosper us, therefore we, his servants, will arise and build, but you have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem. You don’t belong here. This isn’t your land. This isn’t your territory. Belongs to the God of heaven and as his servants, we will do this work.
But the opposition’s already raised its ugly head and it’s almost too true when we determine to do exactly what we know God wants us to do, opposition arises. And so, as we are building, whether it is a personal walk with the Lord, truly doing a work for God in our own homes, in our own life, in a church, in a ministry, as a part, as coming together, as we’ve talked about so many times, many members as one for the same goal and the same cause of following Christ and doing what he’s called us to do, not what we want to do, there will be opposition. It’s inevitable.
And I’m going to jump just to chapter four, verse 10 for a moment, and I appreciate your brother James back there. Thank you guys so much. I know they’re working hard to get that stuff in order, but Nehemiah 4:10 is where I want to land and then work from, so we’ll back up from this verse. But I like even this translation’s way of saying it.
Verse 10: “And Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall.”
Now, we’ll get there, so I know you’re like, but they built the wall. It says that in the previous verses. I don’t know. They built it halfway up, so they’re at the halfway point. I like that phrase, the strength of the bearers of burdens. You feel that’s your calling for sure, I’m a bearer of burdens.
Now, other translations say the strength of the laborers, it means the same thing, but I like that description there because you can say the strength of the laborers and again, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a perfect translation of God’s Word because that’s what it is, it’s God’s Word. But you say, well, I’m not really in the work, you know, I’m not physically able, I don’t have the time, whatever.
But in God’s Word, it’s made up of those who bear the burden because you’re burdened by this world, at least you should be. And we kind of talked about that yesterday with men. You know, churches are really just kind of withdrawn from the real battle, and so let’s just all have church as comfortable as we can, and not impact the world, but not let the world impact us, right? We’ll just hide in our little building here and do nobody no harm, right? And we’ll just meet together like a book club, you know? Someone said church is just a book club, it’s just always the same book, you know? Some of you might get that, I don’t know. Right?
But no, we’re called to something greater than just meeting together, though we’re called to meet together. And we’re called out, to be sent out on behalf of doing the work of God. So we are the bearers of burdens. The explanation of those who maybe fall in their Christian life, we’re to come up alongside them and bear the burden. For those who are carrying a heavy load, we’re not to step over them or around them and, well, bless your heart, we’ll pray for you, you know? No, we’re to get up alongside and bear the burden, and be there. That’s what a church family is, to be there, just like you would with your own family, to help bear the burden.
And I know that’s how this world feels sometimes. I understand that. And by the way, that’s how the world has felt for generations. But certainly in Nehemiah’s life, he understood that this work was not a quick fix. So often that’s what we desire or we long for, or even maybe looking for Jesus to do. Jesus, make it a quick fix in my life, please. I’m hurting, I’m struggling, and Jesus, I want you just to be that quick fix answer for me, so I can just drink you down with water and get rid of this burden. That’s not how it works.
So he has the power to do it, but more importantly, he wants to teach us through the burden. Yes, he can remove it. Yes, he can become the strength that we need. Even here in Nehemiah, it says the joy of the Lord is our strength, and that should be encouraging, because you can find the joy of the Lord wherever you are and in whatever condition you find yourself in today. It’s available to you. You don’t have to wait for me to inspire you to find the joy of the Lord.
I was telling the kids downstairs, I said, the pastor should never be irrelevant in your life. I hope I’m not. Or just find somebody else. That’s fine. I understand. But I should never be preeminent. It’s the Lord Jesus who’s to be preeminent in your life, and I sadly have heard of how pastors try to dictate people’s lives and tell them who to marry and what to do and how to do it. No, that’s preeminence. Nor should I be irrelevant.
I go hide in my ivory tower and have guards around me, like they do, these football coaches when they try to get them out of the stadium, you know, don’t touch him, don’t talk to him. No. No. That’s borderline evil. But in Nehemiah’s life, he was neither irrelevant, English, second language, no, but he certainly made sure he wasn’t preeminent. He spoke of the God of heaven. He encouraged the people through them knowing he is being led by the God of heaven to do this work.
And that’s important because the work itself, in itself, is opposition. It’s work, right? And work and a burden creates opposition in your life. Raising children is a burden in and of itself. It creates opposition in your life. But you know that you’re being bombarded by everything else to help or hurt your efforts to raise your children or your influence, your grandchildren for the Lord because the world is against it.
Just the work itself becomes heavy without anything else to distract you or to become a burden for you. When he makes that statement, we walk in and enter into what we call chapter three, verse one. And I love the encouragement right off the bat.
Verse one: “Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priest, and they builded the sheep gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it. Even unto the tower of Miah, they sanctified it unto the tower of Hananiel.”
Don’t get lost in the words of the location of the gate or what the gate is, although that is key and important, that they did start at the gates, the places of entry. And oh, how we could draw the principle from that, how we’re to guard our entry gates, the eye gate, the ear gate, and how we’re to guard those gates in our life.
And they thought, if we’re going to rebuild here and if we’re going to protect this city, we need to start at the key entry points and build from there. And if you’re going to build a life for the Lord in a world against it, if you’re going to build a life for your children, your family, your grandchildren, or otherwise, you need to start at the entry point.
Is your eye gate and ear gate just so filled with the burden of the world? Are you welcoming in so much information that you’ve lost the ability to even find time, let alone receive the word of God in your life? Have you allowed everything—and we talked about this yesterday—everything can enter into your mind immediately. You can have anything you want and it can take you wherever it wants. And you don’t even realize it.
And by the end of it, you’re so depressed, you think there’s not even a God in this world. And of course, we know the God of this world, the liar himself, the devil, is controlling all of that, but we know the God of heaven, the creator of this world, and the one who will conquer this world and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
But if we let all that in our eye gate and ear gate, we don’t temper it, we don’t control it, we don’t, in our self-discipline, put an end to it when we know it’s starting to affect us, if we don’t do that, even when we read the word of God, we’ll start to even doubt it and that it can have any effect on anyone in this world.
That’s how bad it is. That’s how bad it is out there.
Nor can we shut everything off and be ignorant and hide in a corner and say, well, just hold on until Jesus comes, because that’s not going to accomplish anything either. And I am burdened by this.
And I still feel we play a part in this part of our world. And we certainly play a part by giving so that we may send missionaries to other parts of this world. I’m grateful that we have a place to meet. But if that’s all it is, then this building is no different than any other building you could gather together to meet for whatever.
We drop down to verse 5, just speaking of the building here. And next unto them the Tekoaites repaired, but their nobles put not their necks, or other versions say shoulders, to the work of the Lord.
Now neck is right here because really the intent of the verse is that they wouldn’t bend their neck to do the work, meaning they wouldn’t surrender to do it. That’s the intent of the decision making of the two out of the Tekoaites.
The first ones, the first part of them, they got to work. The nobles thought, no, that’s not for us. We’re not going to bow to something like this. We’re the noblemen, you know. That’s just pride, right? Again, all grace, no guilt, but there is a work for you to do, there’s a work for me to do.
My work doesn’t look like your work, your work doesn’t look like others’ work. If we compare ourselves among ourselves, that is not good, but we’re to compare ourselves to the Christian Jesus saved us to be. That’s our standard.
And the first thing we see is the choice we have to make. Here’s one group with two different choices being made. The one said, let’s get to work. We go to work. They start to do the repair. The other say, no, we’re not going to put our necks to the work of… Look at what they say. Not the Lord. What does it say? Their Lord. Their Lord.
Oh, that’s their thing. Anybody ever tell you that? That’s what you believe. That’s what you want to do with your life. And that’s okay. Just keep it over there, right? It’s a work to do.
Thank God for the high priest, Eliashib, who chose to do the work. He humbly gathered together with his brethren, the priests, and did the work.
And yet here we see it’s a co-it. Then the next thing we see in verse eight, “Next unto him repaired Uzziel, the son of Heriah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah, the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.”
What do we see? We see those of differing occupations gathering together to do one thing, the work of the Lord.
If that’s not the description of the local New Testament church, I don’t know what is. Of all areas of life, of all talents, and of all means, and all skills, and all abilities come together. They didn’t say, well, I only do this, so I don’t know if I can do the work of building a wall or a gate. No. They just said, hey, I’m a goldsmith. Hey, I’m an apothecary. Hey, I’m a plumber. I’m a builder. I’m a resource man. Whatever. I’m a salesman. I’m a whatever. But we’re all here. We’re all here to do the one work, and we gather together to do the work of the Lord.
It’s actually really like an orchestra that comes together in perfect harmony. Nobody, although sometimes they get the spotlight, you know, a certain instrument gets the highlight for a certain song or something of that nature. But if they’re not all together, the sound is hard to listen to.
And we’ll talk more about that next week, what happened to our churches in the work. So you have to come back for that.
But verse 27 then says, and after them, this is great, the Toccoites repaired another piece. I love this. Over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel. So when the Toccoites got done with their work, they didn’t say, all right, we’re done. We’re out of here. Hope you all figure the rest of it out.
They went and found another work to do. They found another piece of the work that they could work on themselves and be a part of. They continued in the work. That’s by choice. That’s by choice.
Well, this is all I do, so that’s all I need to do, and that’s okay, and I’m thankful for those who can concentrate on certain things and accomplish those things, and God has called and used them to do that. But hey, we need help over on this other piece, and the Toccoites said, all right, let’s go help over there. Let’s go do that too. We can do that. And they were encouraged to continue to do the work.
What they weren’t were professional wall builders and gate restorers. They were not that at all. So when we say, well, I’m not qualified to do God’s work, exactly, none of us are. I still marvel. I was talking to somebody who I knew years ago and said, I just don’t grasp what God has done. How I’m pastoring this church, it just still hasn’t set in, but that’s what God chose to do, and I know how unworthy I am, but even just the path I took to get here, and I just marvel at what God could do with the unqualified, and the unable, and the unskilled, and I’m so thankful that’s who He chooses.
Oh, He chooses the skilled as well, but these men all were skilled in other areas but came together, and they were equipped by the good hand of God and the leadership of Nehemiah with giving them direction, and they went to work.
And then we see the challenge, Nehemiah chapter four, and we’ll stay there for the last part of this. Verse one says, but, there it is again, it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was very wroth, or wroth, and took great indignation and mocked the Jews. He tried it again, he laughed them to scorn, and we understand that, maybe you’ve been laughed at for claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ, or just even recognizing that you identify with Christ, and meet with His people on a Sunday, and waste your Sunday morning doing as such.
So they start with a laugh, but then the wall gets going, and now Sanballat tries a lecture. He says in verse two, and he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, “What do these feeble Jews, will they fortify themselves, will they sacrifice, will they make an end in a day, will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?” Not so by the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.”
Oh, they’re having a time, aren’t they? After laughing at them, now they’re just discussing the matter amongst themselves. Who do they think they are? What do they think they’re trying to accomplish? What, are they going to build a wall in a day? Is that what they think they’re going to do?
They came out of a place of frustration, says in the first verse, he was wroth and took great indignation. By the way, we’re not to fear the opposition, and some people may not like this, but we are to frustrate them. We’re to frustrate this world, do you realize that? Our existence should frustrate this world. Again, never to be ignorant, never to be high and holy and self-righteous in our pride. We’re to speak the truth in love, we are, but we are to speak the truth.
And when given the opportunity, we’re to speak it and frustrate the lost and sinful world with the truth of the word of God.
It’s frustrating. When you enter into a situation where all they want to do is be, live, speak, act ungodly, and you bring godliness into it, that’s frustrating. That interrupts their world. They don’t want to hear it, they don’t want anything to do with it, and they certainly don’t want you interrupting their world.
Instead of fearing them, well, you know, maybe they’re right, yeah, this work of God thing, it’s been going on forever, and look how many lost people there are. Are we really making a difference, are we really having an impact? And we start to listen to what the world has to say.
Of course, Hollywood, television, now social media, all of it, what do they do? They mock Christianity. Sadly, people give them reasons to do so, but for the most part, they’re just mocking a God because they don’t want to be accountable to any God. They certainly don’t want to be accountable to the God of heaven who says their soul is damned for hell because of their sin, and that they’re accountable for the life that they have, and that’s what Nehemiah is facing with Sanballat and Tobiah in his life.
But here’s the challenge, and let’s go to Romans 14, we’ll come right back, but I’m going to read these verses because I think it helps. I think it will help in the challenge. It won’t remove the challenge, but I hope it reinforces some things in your life in the challenge, and we, again, must understand this in Romans 14, in verse 7, and it touches on some things about weak faith and how we’re to act and how we’re to receive others and how we’re not to, you know, esteem one day above the other and all those things.
But verse 7, he says, “For none of us live or liveth unto ourself or to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are, we are presently the Lord’s.”
And then he says, “For to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living.” But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.
Verse 13 then says, “Let us not therefore judge one another,” and that’s what the world jumps on. Ah, see, see, no judging, no judging. No, wait a minute. “Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put in a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”
I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably, destroy not with him thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Let not then your good be evil spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy, joy in the Holy Ghost.
For he that in these things serveth, Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.”
So, no, it doesn’t mean we just let the world do what it wants and hide our, you know, our little convictions and our standards, keep them to ourself, and no. The world’s going to oppose, but we’re to understand in all conflict, in every challenge from without or within, we’re to give an account of ourself to the Lord.
So it’s never, well, he does and she does, but I don’t, or I do, but they don’t. But I’m not like the world, and I’m not like that worldly Christian over there. That’s not the standard, the standard Paul has given, that we give an account of ourself to the Lord. And we will. It’s unavoidable.
We enter in to give an account of our life and what we’ve done with it.
Back to Nehemiah chapter 4, with the mocking, with the laughing and the lecturing and all those things.
By the way, we’re not going to give an account to those who mock us, but we will give an account to the one who made us. And I want you to always understand that. Oh, there’s going to be mockers and scorners and laughers and opposition of all kinds. We can’t stop it, but we must always realize we’re not going to give an account to them. We’re going to give an account to him, the one who made us, created us, gave us life and gave us new life through his son, Jesus Christ. That’s who we will give an account to.
And so with that, verse 4, it says, “Hear, oh, our God, for we are despised and turn their reproach upon their own head and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.” Verse 5: “And cover not their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee. For they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.”
Again, what does Nehemiah initially do? He gives them up to the Lord. God, you deal with them. That’s a good place to start. Take your scorners and mockers and your opposers to the Lord.
Initially, if you go back to verse 20, we don’t have to on the screen, please, but he answered them. Chapter 2, verse 20, they laughed at him, what it says, then I answered them. He went to them with the Lord.
This time, he goes to the Lord with them. God, you do something with them, and I encourage you to do so. You can look him dead in the eye. You don’t even have to say a word, but you can think to yourself, you know what? I’m telling God about this. Kind of like your children. I’m telling mom. All right. I’m going to tell God about you. You don’t have to deal with me, but you’re going to have to deal with him.
But with that courage, with that courage, and that’s the last thing it says in verse number six, “So built we the wall. And all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof, for the people had a mind to work.”
Now with that courage, you think, good, they just kept doing the work. They kept building, and I’m sure the opposition just looked at him and said, well, I guess we’re not going to stop them. No. I guess we’ll leave them alone now. They’re already halfway done.
No, they didn’t. But here’s what oddly seems to happen. Either they ignored or maybe God did put some kind of barrier, if you will, between the opposition and they’re laughing and they’re mocking and they’re scorning. Even a fox goes up there, it’s going to knock the whole thing over anyway. Maybe there was something there that wasn’t given account for. That’s not biblical. That’s just my thinking through it.
But here’s what happens. Verse 7, “But it came to pass that when Sanballot and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Amorites and the Asshodites heard the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth.”
Verse 8, “They conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.” So they weren’t done yet.
However, nevertheless, verse 9, “We made our prayer unto our God.” Again, knowing that, hey, they’re conspiring against us. They’re going to keep coming after us. What do they do? They pray to God, but then they come up with a plan. We’ve got to have a plan for this.
Again, like I said, the work itself was enough, but now they have this outward opposition that’s coming for them, will not quit, will not stop until they think they’ve stopped the wall from continuing to be built. And so they pray and they plan for the enemy.
That’s the formula. Yes, tell God, wipe out my enemy. But if they just keep coming, then you just keep praying, but then start planning. We can pray on Sunday, God, remove my enemy. And when he shows up and we weren’t ready for him on Monday and on Tuesday and on Wednesday and the enemy woke up before we did and was ready and prepared to attack us. But we have not been preparing to stand against them.
We find ourselves right back where we were and we find ourselves right where they’re headed.
Verse 10, and Judah said, “The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall.”
Wait a minute, they just build half of it. But guess what? After all that exhausting work to get halfway, they look around and what do they see? They take their eyes off the half made wall and they start to look at all the rubbish that Nehemiah saw back in chapter one. And it starts to really weigh on them.
You ever feel that way? Man, I’m making progress. And then something comes out and you go, what? God, really? More rubbish? And because you were so busy working and building that wall in your life, whatever that may be, you had your eyes off the rubbish because you were focused on the work.
What does the devil just love to do? Get your eyes off the work and get your eyes back on the rubbish. To where now you’re back to where you started. It looks insurmountable. God, how are we going to do this? How are we going to complete this? Look at everything around us. Look how much it is just left undone.
And then listen to their words, “So that we are not able to build the wall.” Have you seen God bring victory in your life and yet there’s something that you look and go, we’re not able to do this? Or have you seen progress in your own spiritual walk with the Lord and then you mess up? Because we do mess up because we are not perfect. Because we are still sinners saved by grace and we are still frail in our frame and we are still but dust, right? And we look at our own self and go, you’re just rubbish.
And the devil goes, yeah, keep telling yourself that. And he gets you, so you’re not even focusing on the Lord anymore, but you’re not even focusing on the work anymore. Now you’re focusing back on what is left undone and still needs work.
Verse 11, we’ll be quick here, “And our adversaries said, they shall not know, neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease.”
And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times from all places, when she shall return unto us, they will be upon you. And now once would have been enough, but they said ten times, they’re coming after us. They’re coming after us. Ten times they said.
Verse 13, “Therefore said I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears and their bows.”
And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, “Be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. And fight for your brethren and your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.”
Listen, this is it right here. This is it. Because they got their minds and their focus off of what God had given them to do. Nehemiah’s answer was don’t fear them. Remember the Lord. Remember his goodness. Remember how he strengthened you to get the work to the halfway. Remember that he’s the one we’re praying to and setting watch for our enemy at the same time.
Remember the Lord. And anytime someone says to you, hey, do you remember that? Maybe you haven’t thought about that in years. But what does it do? It immediately goes, oh, yeah, and brings your attention to what they’re asking you about.
And that’s what Nehemiah does. Hey, hey, remember the Lord? Oh, yeah. He’s the one who prospers us. He’s the reason we’ve even got halfway. But it doesn’t end there.
He says, remember the Lord and fight for your brethren, for your wives and families, daughters and your houses and your sons. Fight for your loved ones. Remember the Lord. Fight for your loved ones. And that goes back to realizing we don’t give an account to the opposition, give an account to the Lord.
And if we do and we give our life to the Lord Jesus Christ and continue in the work, it will affect our loved ones. We can have an impact on our loved ones. But it starts with being not afraid of the opposition and fearing with reverence the Lord.
And then in conclusion, it says, “And it came to pass when our enemies heard that it was known unto us and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall.”
They returned to the wall. They remembered the Lord and they return to the work. Every one unto his work. They didn’t lose anybody. Everyone unto his work.
And it came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants wrought in the work and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields and the bows and the armor. And the rulers were behind all the house of Judah, they which build it on the wall and they that bear burdens, which those that laid it, everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon.
For the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side and so build it. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.
So the opposition increased, but the work didn’t cease. Now they had to do it differently. They had to watch for the enemy, but they kept doing the work. They all returned to the wall and got back to work, knowing full well the enemy never went away. It’s that they can work while watching.
The enemy is not going to go away. They’re not going anywhere. They’re increasing actually. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse in these perilous times, but we are to continue to remember the Lord.
Even if we feel like we’re halfway there, I don’t know where we are on God’s timeline. I know this. I shared this yesterday. I played a clip of my pastor back in Tennessee. I said he always said all of this, and I can say that about Bible Baptist Church, all seventy three and a half years.
It’s just simply the foundation for what God wants to do next. We’re not halfway. This is just the beginning. This is just the beginning.
You say, oh, no, this church is so no, oh, but we’ve had such a great past or whatever. No. All of this for what God wants to do next and your life is just the same.
Maybe you’ve seen some progress, maybe you’ve seen some setbacks, maybe you’ve created some enemies by just speaking up for the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t know. Maybe you’re really in a struggle with those you love that you’re fighting for.
But all of this is the Lord establishing in your life a foundation for what he wants to do next with your life. And maybe not keep focusing on the enemy or the rubbish. Let’s remember the Lord.
Let’s pray.
Thank you. Again, as we come to you, maybe heavily burdened or maybe carefree, I don’t know. Maybe in great conflict or in just absolute comfort of our life. I don’t know where everyone is this morning.
I pray wherever they are. Wherever their attention is in the moment right now. May their attention be drawn to you. I don’t know what everyone’s facing. I don’t know what opposition everyone faces, but I know we all face opposition. Especially when we strongly stand with great courage for the work that you’ve given us to do.
So Lord, please, I ask you to help individually everyone in this place. And I ask collectively, you help us as a church to realize our mission. Our mission is to do your work. In the midst of opposition. In the midst of opposition. Would you help us please?
Lord, if there’s somebody here and the message means nothing, because they know not the Lord Jesus as their Savior. They’re not even sure what any of this is.
I pray they respond to Christ in the greatest work of all. The work of complete payment for sin on the cross. And they would receive you, Lord Jesus, as their Savior today.
Lord, if I’m sure as I might be that most of us are believers in this room and are either facing something right now. Or at least weary and well doing from doing the work.
I pray you speak to them and encourage them today.
Ask these things.
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