One who seeks the welfare of God's people

I'll ask you to turn please to Nehemiah chapter 2, Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 10. This may not mean much just to read this text. When Zanballot 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.

Just keep your finger there because I want to read more. In Philippians chapter 2, I'll remind you that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 21, For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

Now you'll see there's a contrast between those two texts. There was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

I want to read a favorite verse of mine in chapter 2. Actually a section here beginning at verse 2. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid and said unto the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? This is the text I want to refer to here.

I won't be elaborated on it. Then the king said unto him, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king. That verse is a favorite of mine because that was a prayer that took place in just about an instant.

But he was in instant contact. But I want to read now the context for the verse I want to touch on. And I want you to notice that wasn't the first time we have Nehemiah praying.

Beginning at verse 1 of chapter 1. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hekeliah. And it came to pass in the month Jizlul, in the twentieth year as I went, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which 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 many days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, and said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments, let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eye open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned. Now we'll not read more at the moment. When it comes to my personal understanding of the history of the period of which we are reading, I have to acknowledge that I have never paid much attention to it.

But what we have is that period after Judah had been carried away into captivity, 70 years had passed, Daniel was part of the civil service of the kings that reigned in that period, and there's a lot we know about Daniel's history. Daniel, I believe, survived past the moment when the decree of Cyrus was made in 535 B.C. Now, that's a benchmark that I've noticed that I have to pay attention to. Daniel likely died just a year or two after that in his 90s, perhaps.

I'll say no more about Daniel. The decree of Cyrus allowed the Jews to return from Babylon, and they did go back, a great many of them, and that would have been, if memory serves me right, I'm letting my comment that I made, I'm not as familiar with this as I'd like to be, was it surreptitious? If it wasn't, you'll forgive me. Fourteen years later, Queen Vashti displeased King Ahasuerus.

You read about that in Esther. And a Jewish maiden, Esther, became the queen in Vashti's place. Not my subject, but I want to give you these benchmarks.

Seventy-nine years after the decree was made that the Jews could go back, Ezra led a large contingent of Jews back to the land of Judah. To me, it's remarkable. There were those who went immediately when the decree was made.

Seventy-nine years later, Ezra led another contingent. Eleven years after that passage that we've read is when Nehemiah had that interview with the king, that will say a little bit more presently, and Nehemiah was given the responsibility to go back. What was he so upset about in that first chapter that we were reading about? He was upset because the walls around Jerusalem were in ruins.

The gates were burned. And I guess I'll just state this rather than try to show it to you. He prayed for four months.

And I think he prayed day and night. And then came that occasion. We didn't read all the details of it in chapter two.

He was the king's cupbearer, and the king was drinking wine. And as the cupbearer, no doubt he had to taste it first just to prove that it wasn't poisoned, and then present that to the king. And he was so sad about the condition of God's people.

The walls broken down, the gates burned. He had prayed for four months. And when he went into the king's presence, his countenance was sad.

And that could have cost him his life, because the king asked him, why is thy countenance fallen? And we read that then he was afraid. His answer was, why should I not be sad when the city of my fathers lies in ruins and the walls are broken down? And then it was that the king, in response, didn't say take him away. Instead he said, for what is thy request? And that instant prayer that we have read, I lifted my heart to the Lord and I answered the king.

That prayer came after there had been four months of constant prayer. Is it any wonder that God heard that prayer and gave him exactly the words to say? He asked to be sent to the city of Jerusalem with the responsibility of building the walls, and the book of Nehemiah is all about that. I'm not going to go into that in detail this morning.

I'll go now to the contrasting text that I read in verse 10 of chapter 2. I wanted to give you the setting for that. 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. For a few minutes I purposed to share the meeting.

For a few minutes I want to speak about a man that was come to seek the welfare of God's people. I read the contrasting verse in Philippians chapter 2, All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ. Do we not have today, brethren, a crying need for, I was going to say brethren, I won't say brethren, I'll say believers, and a primary motivation of their lives is to seek the welfare of God's people.

I won't spend time describing the current conditions among us. We all long to see more souls being saved, and it's very seldom that you can see many being saved in our country. I'm thankful for Latin America and the move of God in those places.

But our assemblies are declining, numerically, spiritually, and we need believers who will seek the welfare of the people of God. Now, when I speak like this, I'm not speaking about overseers. Although, we do need overseers who have God's people on their heart.

Many years ago, Mr. Hector Alves made a comment to me in private. He said, we've got a lot of good administrators, but not very many overseers. What did he mean? Men that are well-abled to good businessmen, but God's assembly isn't a business.

And men that could take care of the books and so on, but an overseer is a shepherd, and he has the sheep on his heart. We have two crying needs today among God's people. If you look at those who are presently in the Lord's work in the United States, the majority of them, I think I'm safe in making this statement, the majority of them are past what is called retirement age.

Where are those that are being raised up with the heart for the gospel and the heart for God's people? Then the other crying need, of course, is for shepherds in God's assembly. One of the problems there, and I'm just going to mention this in passing, is I believe the failure to recognize those that God is raising up. But perhaps what's really needed is for God to put the assemblies upon the hearts of young men and bring them along to the place where they're taking responsibility and doing shepherd work.

I got a letter one time from a brother. If I told you his name, you would all recognize it. And he said, there's nobody doing shepherd work in our assembly, and I'm doing more shepherd work than all the rest put together.

And it was a factual statement, and I knew it was true, and I don't think he was saying it complainingly. I said, don't worry about whether you're recognized as a shepherd or not. Do the work! He's a man that had the welfare of God's people on his heart.

Now, I said I wasn't going to say much about overseers. I'm really thinking about how even those who are young can devote themselves to the study of the Word of God with a view of sharing what God gives them with the other believers, both publicly and privately. And I did deliberately say a little earlier, believers and not brethren, because I believe there's a role for sisters in the welfare, seeking the welfare of God's assembly.

Now, what were these men complaining about? These men that were upset because Nehemiah showed up, and he began to build, and he encouraged the rest to build. What were they upset about? Because there was come a man to seek the welfare of God's people. There will always be critics, and we expect that from outsiders.

But what about critics even amongst God's people? Be careful what you say about others. One more thing, and I'm going to sit down. It has often been pointed out that there are two men of whom we do not read of failure in their lives.

Who am I speaking about? Joseph and Daniel. That's often been pointed out. Does that mean they didn't have any failures? No, it doesn't mean that.

It just means the Spirit of God has not chosen to record that. But I was thrilled when I noticed there's one more. It's the man of whom I'm reading today, Nehemiah, a man whose entire being was taken up with the desire to be a blessing to the people of God.

God raised up believers with that motivation. You know, the problem in Philippians 2 and 21 was selfishness. Living for the here and now, living for me.

And what we need is those that seek the welfare of the people of God.