Neh No.6 A blueprint for Builders

I think it will be useful, as the pastor said, if you have a Bible. It's useful at this time to share these Bibles with our friend. So if you don't have a Bible and somebody is sitting near you, it might be useful to follow in whatever version they are using, the authorised version and any other version, so that we can read together slowly and listen to God as He speaks to us through these prophets.

We start reading Nehemiah 2, verse 9. Those of you who have been following the story, Nehemiah has now left Persia and has come to a destroyed Jerusalem. And we begin to see how he began to work for God. Verse 9. Then I came to the governors beyond the river and gave the king's letters.

Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Zanballat 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. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.

And I rose in the night, I and some few men with me, neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, neither was there any beast with me save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung pot and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain and to the king's pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

Then went I up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall and turned back and entered by the gate of the valley and so returned. And the rulers knew not whether I went or what I did. Neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.

Then said I unto them, Ye 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.

And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. But when Zanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Sovereign, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they laughed at us to scorn, and despised us and said, What is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us.

Therefore we his servants will rise and build. But he have no portion, no right, no memorial in Jerusalem. Verse 17, the last part.

Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. In more tender years I recall an address which was preached. I think I heard it by way of tape.

On that verse in the New Testament there was a man sent from God, whose name was John. And the subject of that discourse, as you might well have guessed, having now revealed the text, was God's man. That word lived on in my heart.

And it got from me the response that I suppose the preacher wanted. And that was a desire to be God's man. And I dare to believe that here in the tabernacle, shared by the ladies as well as by the men, is that ambition that God would so use our individual and collective ministries in this place, in this town, that we might indeed be God's people.

Now it seems to me almost something that one could take for granted, that as you look into the book of Nehemiah, you find here a man who is a classic illustration of a servant who is sold out for the Lord God of glory. He wants to do God's bidding. Later on in Hebrews chapter 11, is it not, there is, if you like, the art gallery of the heroes of faith.

I wonder if you've ever wandered down that gallery and you've looked at the portraits and you see men like Abraham and Moses and Samson and the like. Now not every portrait is listed and I reckon if you walked down the corridor and you were very careful, you'd see one of Nehemiah. And it seems to me that that gallery goes on and on down the history of the church and you'll see other portraits of men and women that God has used.

And not until the 20th century, if you'll allow my imagination to wander for a moment, I wonder whose portrait will be there. I wonder if there will be a place for you, a place for me, that people might wander down and look up and see that person, that face, that visage and say, yes, that was God's man, that was God's woman, in 1978, there on the south coast of England. Well, Nehemiah is an example of a man that is used for God and I think that as we come towards the conclusion of our studies of this second chapter, we could well look at these final few verses under the general heading of a blueprint for builders, a blueprint for builders.

For you will recall that the raison d'etre, the reason of being for Nehemiah at Jerusalem was to rebuild the walls around the holy city and to rehang the gates. Every sensitive Jew was concerned for the security of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was more than just a city, it was emblematic, it was the enzyme of God on earth.

And spiritual men have always been concerned for the preservation of God's work. So those walls at Jerusalem in a state of disrepair, they stand for God's work down the centuries and here is a man who was called at one specific time to attend to the repair, to the re-fortification of the holy city. God's man doing God's work successfully.

You, me, doing God's work today. Could this be the case? I think so. So we attend, as I say, to these final few verses of the second chapter of this book under the general heading of a blueprint for builders and it will become obvious to you as you look through the ninth verse and onwards that conveniently the historical narrative divides into three separate sections.

You discover Nehemiah first of all surveying the site. He surveys the site. Then he co-ops co-laborers.

He co-ops co-laborers. And then he sizes up the saboteurs. I particularly use those three little headings because I think it will be easier for you to memorize them.

So let's take them in order. First of all, Nehemiah surveys the site. He's been back in Jerusalem for 72 hours.

He's rested after his long journey from Persia. And we discover him one evening setting out, having saddled a donkey and making an expedition in the company of several men around the walls of Jerusalem. Verse 12 tells you about that.

Now, what's the reason behind this nocturnal expedition? When other people are sleeping, why does Nehemiah set out on his beast and go around the externals of this holy city? Well, the reason, I think, is almost obvious to you. He is concerned to view for himself the report that you recall originally he received from his brother Hanani. He wants to know about the state of the holy city and its walls.

And so he sets out, and even the handful of men who are journeying him are not aware as to the real reason for his evening's exposition. And he returns to Jerusalem, or through the wall of Jerusalem, to exactly the same spot as where he set off on his reconnaissance mission. Verse 16 reminds us of what I've just brought to your attention.

The rulers didn't know whether I went or what I did. Neither had I as yet told it to the Jews. What was Nehemiah's concern? It was to see the state of the city himself.

He'd wept over Jerusalem before. You remember we read about that in the first chapter of this book. And I told you that Nehemiah wasn't the first man, and he would not be the last man to weep over Jerusalem.

And it seems to me that if the work of God in the 20th century is ever to be strengthened, if the walls are ever to be built in the way that God would have them to be constructed, then somebody's got to get on their beast and have one or two nocturnal expeditions and break their hearts as they see the ruins that are left in certain parts of our world of the fortifications around the church of God. You say I exaggerate? I wish that I had brought along with me this morning into the pulpit a recent publication by the BBC which dovetailed with a series of broadcasts the Archbishop of Canterbury gave on television over Easter week. And there is a list in that magazine of certain things that are happening in our country, the decay of society.

The quotation is from Frederick Catherwood who was here, you remember, not so long ago, recognising that within our country today there is need for men and women to survey the scene with intelligence and to recognise that the state around the church of our God, the state of the walls, are in disrepair and it needs someone, some Nehemiah, many Nehemiahs to survey the scene and to bring the situation before the Lord. A man who impressed me in the first college that I attended in London now 15, 16 years ago was called Billy Richards. I think I may have made reference to him before but some while back in the tabernacle.

Billy Richards went into Slough just after the war. There was no vital gospel witness in that town and he felt impelled by God to go there and to establish an evangelical concern. I remember Richards telling us students how he was so disturbed for the town of Slough that he couldn't sleep at night and he'd wander down the back streets and down the main thoroughfare and in the late hours of the night and the early hours of the morning he would plead that God would do something in Slough to his honour and his glory.

Billy Richards was recently called home to be with the Lord just several months ago. Slough Gospel Tabernacle exists not only as a witness to what God can do in the 20th century but also as to how God honours the prayer of men who like Nehemiah break themselves over the situation in a town. Slough Gospel Tabernacle has established centres of Christian counselling not only in Slough but around the world.

Thousands and thousands of people have been won for the cause of Jesus Christ as a result of a vision which Billy Richards saw just in years after the war. I mention him as a modern example because it is possible sometimes, I think, for you to deduce from preachers and the illustrations that they use that the miracle answers of God always attended an age gone by and are not the currency in which he trades in the 20th century. What will move Worthing for Jesus Christ, what will move the South Coast for Jesus Christ is when we have Nehemiahs who wander the streets, who read their newspapers, who listen to the news on the radio or watch it on the television and their heart breaks within them as they recognise the state of society and the need that there is for people to expend time before God in prayer.

Nehemiah surveys the site and then you will notice having done that he co-opts, co-labourers. His convictions now have been cemented. He must do something.

He's seen the state of the city. He must disclose to the Jews at Jerusalem the reason for his journey from Shushan, the palace of Artaxerxes. And this is what we find him doing in the 17th verse.

Then said I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach. He surveyed the scene.

He notices the requirements and he realised that in and of himself he can't possibly attend to this task. It must be a teamwork. So he preaches his first sermon and he's got a tremendous congregation in view as he does so.

All those who would feature in a who's who book in Jerusalem were present. Verse 16 makes it very clear. The rulers were there.

All the Jews were there. The priests were there. The nobles were there.

Everyone who had influence in ordinary work people were in attendance and Nehemiah exposes the burden of his heart before the inhabitants of the holy city who'd been back, you remember, in that place, some of them 90 odd years and hadn't attended to the labour of rebuilding those walls. Nehemiah had a ministry that was penetrating. Now this is the thing about the man of God.

The man who has spent hours and hours and hours in prayer before the Lord, he has a sort of magnetic effect whereby he's able to bring into his service and therefore in the fulfilment of the will of God other co-labourers. One of the things, and I must be careful as to what I'm saying because he'd probably hear this type, one of the things that impresses me about George Werver of Operation Mobilisation is I've seen something of the work of OM in this country and abroad is the quality of young person who works amongst the 1,000 people that are now in that particular missionary society. God seems in a remarkable fashion to give them the right person for the right job at the right time.

Nehemiah knows that something has got to be done in Jerusalem and he can't do it himself. So he unburdens his heart before his congregation and it has a magnetic effect upon them and they're unified, they're brought into one whole and together they attend to a task. I wonder if you've ever heard of a preacher by the name of Baxter.

You never have heard him, not unless you're 300 years old, because he lived about 300 years ago at Kidderminster. He went there and there was hardly anyone, just a handful of people who were attending the church. Baxter spent time in prayer before God.

He saw Kidderminster in a state of ruin spiritually. His heart bled for that town and he started to preach and in the infinite grace of God, Baxter was able to fashion a veritable army of workers so that ere long he had 300 to 400 communicants each Sunday and during the summer months, 1,200 people thronged into that church or stood on the outside to listen to Baxter preach. You've heard of Dr. Johnson and his faithful servant Boswell.

Well, they lived around that time. Boswell, who was also Johnson's secretary and took down all the wise sayings of that man, Boswell once asked Johnson what he should read of Baxter's works and Johnson said, Read them all. They're all profitable.

Now, Baxter was a man who had written many books, The Alarm to the Unconverted, The Reformed Pastor and so on, The Saints' Eternal Rest. His work had a tremendous impact in Kidderminster and indeed in the whole of the British Isles and he was able to group together men who would apply themselves to the evangelization not only of Kidderminster but the surrounding areas. Now, what God did then, He can do today.

God forges together these people in Nehemiah's time so that they can attend to this work and Nehemiah preaches a sermon which unifies this Jewish community and they attend to what they should have been doing during the decades that had already been absorbed into history. Nehemiah brings a corrective to these people. He tells them in verse 17, You see the distress that we are in.

How Jerusalem lieth waste. Now, this is a reproach. Again, he tells them this at the end of the 17th verse, We must attend to this task because it is disgusting.

It is an affront to the reputation of Jewish people and to the God of the Jews that these fortifications should be in such a state of disrepair. He brings a corrective. Now, do I need to elaborate upon the corrective that needs to be placarded in front of the evangelical church here in the south of England in the 20th century? The state of God's work in some areas is in ruins and we need to do something about it.

Here is a corrective work. But here is also a word of incentive, of encouragement. Nehemiah now in the 18th verse reveals to the people the reason for his entree into Jerusalem.

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. Now you remember what he is referring to here. Nehemiah having spent 16 weeks or so in prayer went before Artaxerxes and told him that he was sad because he had heard of the state of the city of Jerusalem and you remember the response of Artaxerxes toward that was incredible.

Nehemiah, you can go, you can build these walls and I'll provide the very material by the hand of King Artaxerxes so that this work which you write should have been done ages ago can now be fulfilled. So Nehemiah comes and not only does he correct these people in a very loving fashion, he also instructs them. I've got a vision.

I can show I've got a vision. Look what God has done for me. I've got a visa out from Persia to Palestine.

I've got equipment. Can you explain this? Of course you cannot apart from the fact that God's hand is upon me and God has given me a work to do. Now when you've got a man like Nehemiah, the Lord's anointed, who's obviously taken sweet counsel with God, who has a vision, then follow that man.

If he's a burden, make his burden your own and come together with that man and attend to the labours of God so that the walls of Jerusalem can be rebuilt and the gates can be rehung. So Nehemiah gets together this congregation. They listen and they get excited.

And do you know what he does to his congregation? On the first occasion of preaching, he splits them all up into elders' groups. He really does. And these groups meet in localities.

Some of you will think I'm getting at something at the moment and you might be quite right. They meet in geographical centres around Jerusalem under the leadership of one man or several men. And they attend to God's work in that area and they keep coming together to survey what they have done.

This is remarkable. They didn't split into little companies so that they could vie with one another and envy one another as though they were playing on opposite sides. They recognised that they were on the same team working with the same goal and the commander-in-chief was none other than the Lord God Almighty.

Working together for what? To build the walls. To rehang the gates. So what have we seen Nehemiah doing? Well, he's surveyed the site.

He's co-opted co-labourers and that becomes even more clear in the third chapter as we'll see later on one Sunday morning. And finally, he sizes up the saboteurs. He sizes up the saboteurs.

That's an interesting word, saboteur. It comes, if my memory serves me correctly, from the French word sabote. And I understand that on one occasion some frustrated French worker was so annoyed with his boss I think because he couldn't get an increase in his rather small wage that he took off his shoe and he threw it into the machinery.

And as a result of the sabote going into the machinery the whole thing stopped. And the man had committed an act of sabotage. Now, whenever someone has got something to do for God you can be assured that the saboteurs will be around.

This is what becomes patently obvious in this chapter. Look at the 10th verse. When Sambalat 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.

They didn't like what Nehemiah was about. They suspected that he was going to do something that would advance the redeemed community's cause and bring honour and glory to the Lord. And so what do they do? They interfere or attempt to interfere with the building of those walls.

They pour scorn and contempt upon Nehemiah. Look at the 19th verse. When Sambalat the Horonite and Tobiah the Servant, the Ammonite, and Gishem the Arabian heard what these people were going to do they laughed at us to scorn and despised us and said, what is this thing that you do? Scorn, satire, cynicism, ridicule.

These are part of the ammunition, the constant ammunition of the devil as he would frustrate the purposes of God. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a man, if ever there was one, sent from God, for God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.

What did they say of Him? Is not this the carpenter's son? The illegitimate son of Mary and Joseph? Is He not a drunkard and a wine-bibber? So they poured their ridicule upon the Saviour. They poured their ridicule amongst the early members of the redeemed community. This has always been one of the ploys of the devil and you get it today.

I was reading a book by an Oxford professor only this last week on the subject of fundamentalism and ultimately he is driven to deride the very concept of anyone in the 20th century who can look upon the Word of God as being inspired and inerrant. Now I have no difficulty at all in accepting a man's intellectual argument but scorn, ridicule, cynicism, that leaves me cold. And it's always one of the ploys of the devil to ridicule the work of God.

And here you see it in terms of the scorn that's poured upon Nehemiah. And ultimately when scorn doesn't have its effect then there will become more violent attacks. Physical obstacles will be raised in the way to prevent the rebuilding of those walls and the rehanging of those gates.

But does this put Nehemiah out? Not a bit. Rather, he sizes up these men. The 20th verse.

He says to them, The God of heaven, He will prosper us. Therefore we His servants will arise and build. But you have no portion, no rite, no memorial in Jerusalem.

He knows what these men are about. They would frustrate the very fulfillment of God's plan for the holy city. And he goes on to say this, Look, when the wall is built you'll be on the outside.

You've got no rite here. You've got no memorial. You've got no portion in Jerusalem.

And we can say that to the unbeliever who would frustrate the purposes of God in the 20th century. All right. You laugh at us.

We'll build our wall. We'll rehang our gates. We'll live our lives for the advance of the gospel.

We'll survey the site. We'll co-opt co-laborers. We'll forge together a community for the construction of something that will last all through time and eternity.

And the more you mock, and the more you ridicule, and the more you bring up your obstacles, whether you people do it as communities, as nations, or whether they do it as individuals, will not be put off. Because when we build this wall, and when the kingdom of our God is complete, alas, you will have no memorial, no portion there. Your number is not amongst the elect, not amongst the redeemed.

You have spurned the very gospel of Jesus Christ. Here I say, in this second chapter of the book of Nehemiah, is a blueprint for builders. Then let us constantly be surveying the site.

Let us co-opt co-laborers. Let us size up the saboteurs. And together, let us work out God's purposes here on the south coast of England and every other area where is a local fellowship.

We have an interest for the honor and the praise of our illustrious Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now can I say just before the benediction that this evening I want to address myself to the subject of the afterlife.

Whether there is an afterlife and what happens in the afterlife, what happens at the moment that one passes physically from death into the next dimension. And of course we shall be studying scriptures that give some intimation as to all that. So perhaps you will be in prayer.

Our address will be based on Job 14.14 which says, If a man die, shall he live again? Father, we thank you for opportunity of coming around your word this day. We praise you for the way that those people centuries ago responded to what Nehemiah had to say. And they said, Yes, let us go and strengthen one another's hands and build that wall and rehang those gates.

Father, may we make the same response to this timeless message and use us, O Lord, in building better fortifications for the church of Jesus Christ. For his name's sake. Amen.