Neh No.7 Builders Together

So that's Nehemiah 4. But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, he was angry, and took great indignation and mocked the Jews. Now Tobiah, 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. 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.

But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because of them. That 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.

Amen. Now you may care to have your Bibles open at Nehemiah chapter 3 and 4. We are encompassing quite a lengthy passage of Scripture this morning as we continue our series of meditations on this slender yet choice volume from the Old Testament. Let me remind you and particularly engage in a moment or two of recollection for the benefit of friends who are not regularly here at the tabernacle that Nehemiah is now in Jerusalem.

He had a God-given vision as to work that needed his attention and that of the rest of the Jews in the Holy City. You remember he moved across from Persia to Palestine and after three days rest in the Holy City, he went out one night and he took a tour of the perimeter of Jerusalem. His concern, as you well recall, is that the walls of Jerusalem are in a broken-down condition.

They have been like that for decades and it would appear that the citizens of Jerusalem and the little colony of Jews in Jericho and elsewhere in the Promised Land have forgotten that it is to the honour and glory of God that Jerusalem should remain a well-fortified city. Now as I have been reading through these third and fourth chapters during this week, very often a scripture has come to my mind to which I call your attention. And I think it's a scripture that we need to have very much at the forefront of our thinking as we engage in studying this particular passage from the Old Testament.

I refer to verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and I'm going to read to you from the ninth onwards. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 9, the Apostle Paul writes this, We are labourers together with God. You are God's husbandry.

You are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.

Now what is the Apostle Paul doing here? And why am I alluding to this particular passage and linking it up with Nehemiah chapters 3 and 4? Well the man from Tarsus is describing that activity which people who belong to Jesus Christ should engage in. And he is really employing the metaphor of a building site. He is saying that the master builder and indeed the architect is none other than Jesus.

The edifice which is to be erected is in process of being completed is the church of Jesus Christ. Ah yes, but there is more than this. The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus has a veritable army of labourers.

People who are co-labourers work us together with him in the erection of the church, in the building of the kingdom of God. So it's very much a building site with all the activity that that should conjure up in our minds that is set before us as this picture from the New Testament. Now having disclosed that it should be obvious why these verses have sprung in my thinking when considering chapters 3 and 4 of Nehemiah for what is the picture that you have here.

Well you find a whole city and those who were living on the outskirts of the city mobilised. Nehemiah has a job to do. These walls, they have to be rebuilt.

The breaches have to be repaired, the gates have to be rehung. But he can't do this of himself. He must enlist the aid of other people who recognise that his mission is indeed from the Lord.

And so you remember how he called together all the interested parties and he preached them a great sermon. He disclosed the vision that he had after he had done that tour, that walk around the perimeter of the holy city. And people came along and they said, yes Nehemiah, we're with you.

We will help you so that your vision shall materialise, so that your dream shall be realised. So I say that this is what you find in the third and fourth chapters of this book. Men and women who are engaged in fulfilling the God-given task which initially Nehemiah received.

Now the wall around Jerusalem and the gates that needed to be rehung, they stand in terms of the Christian church for the expansion of the kingdom. All of us have some interest in this if we belong to Jesus. If we don't then the majority of what I'm going to say this morning will be irrelevant to you.

But the larger number in this church are Christian people. And I want to ask you, do you survey your activity in the service of Jesus Christ in terms of a labourer on a building site? Are you a successful co-labourer with Jesus? Nehemiah worked together not only with his fellow Jews but was a co-labourer with God in the erection of those walls around the holy city. Now you and I are to be similarly employed.

And if my thinking is right and I don't really see how you can argue against it from scripture, then the challenge of Nehemiah and the challenge of the verses we have read from 1 Corinthians is this. Are we successful as co-labourers? Nehemiah was, singularly Paul was, but what about you? What about me? Are we successful? Well there are three ingredients to the success of Nehemiah and his contemporaries that I want to lift out from this passage of scripture this morning. And they will help us as we endeavour to serve our Lord Jesus Christ to the best of our ability.

Successful co-labourers, first of all, this can be our first heading, have a mind to work. Look at verse 6 of the fourth chapter. So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together, unto the half thereof, for the people had a mind to work.

There were no strikes, no industrial disputes, there was no argument as to what rate of pay was available, actually no money was involved at all. Here are a group of people working harmoniously. They have a mind to work.

The quality of their work was commendable. If you look through the chapter you will find that in record time they completed, actually 52 days, they completed the building of the wall. The work was of good quality.

They achieved something that seemed to be impossible on the human level. But when people are united, when they are bound together to achieve one objective, it's amazing what can be done. The people had a mind to work.

The Lord Jesus is a master builder. He came on earth to work. I come, he says in one of the Gospels, I think it's the fourth, I come to do the work of him that sent me.

Not my own work, but the work of the Father. And the Apostle Paul says this, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. The quality of his work was excellent.

To the extent that when he concluded his ministry on this earth, looking down from the cross, upon the years of service that he had offered the Lord, he could not find one particle that had not been attended to, and he said, it is finished. The work which you gave me to do, it's been completed. Now as it was for Jesus, so it should be for us.

People working together, good quality of labour offered to the Lord God. Not only the quality of the work is important, as we consider their successful activities, but also the locality in which these people laboured. The locality.

If you were to go through chapter 3, you find there a list of the men and groups who are engaged in putting up these walls. And I think it's interesting to note, for instance, in the 10th verse, there are several references to this, but take the 10th verse. The people who are there, depicted as engaged in putting up the walls, were working near to their own home.

Next unto them repaired Jediah, the son of Harumpah, even over against his house. He worked near to where his own home was. Look at the 17th verse.

After him repaired the Levites, Rehum, the son of Benai. Next unto him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of the half part of Keilah, in his part. He was working in his own locality, in his own vicinity.

Look at the 23rd verse. After him repaired Benjamin and Hashab, over against their house. And the 28th verse.

From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house. What's the point? Well, you see, in serving the Lord God, not only is the quality of your work important, but the locality. You say, what do you mean? Well, you could be working far up over there on the wall and miss the very work that you should be engaged in in your own home.

It is ridiculous, it is nonsense for a person to have several activities, say, in a local church, several responsibilities that are theirs, and they work well, they labour hard. But when you go back to their own home, you find that their relationships there are skewed, perhaps with the wife or vice versa with the husband or with the children. Their own quiet time, it doesn't exist.

Their reading of scripture, well, they pass it day after day, day after day. Concerned, you see, for the labour of the kingdom of God, for working over there upon the wall. But the first place that you are to work is in your home locality.

These Israelites would be very concerned that the wall would be strong where their home was, obviously so. If there was an attack on the part of the enemy, well, they don't want the wall to collapse near their house. Their personal security, the security of their family would be threatened.

Now I say the spiritual principle also applies. In our work for God, we need to be strongest where we live, in our own home. And once we've got that in order, there may well be, and indeed probably is, a responsibility that will be ours to work for God further along the wall too.

The quality of the work, the locality of the work. What about the intensity of this work? Well, as I pointed out to you a moment or so ago, these people worked so enthusiastically that in record time they were able to complete the task. Verse 6, so built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together.

They laboured intensely in the cause of God. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth in the first chapter, in the 15th chapter of the first letter and the 10th verse, he assesses his own work for the Lord Jesus. And he says, by the grace of God, I am what I am.

And His grace was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. He had a mind to work.

The quality of his work was good. The Apostle Paul first worked in his own locality and then he went across the seas. And so intense was the service that he offered for the Lord Jesus that he says, and he does not feel embarrassed by so saying, that his work was of a greater quality than anybody else's.

But he gives praise to the Lord God for the ability so to do. He said it was God's grace that worked through him. So to be successful in the task that God would have us all to do, to be a successful co-labourer with the Lord Jesus, we must have a mind to work.

But coupled with that, as you will deduce from verse 9, is a heart to pray. Look at chapter 4, verse 9. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto God. Prayer is as vital to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as cement is on a little building site.

You see, these people came up against opposition. There is always opposition to the work of the Gospel. The Old Testament community, the redeemed community there, was constantly being assaulted by Satan.

The Lord Jesus Christ is opposed in the work that he does. Down the history of the Church, there has been opposition. How do you overcome opposition? Well, I say you do so by prayer.

So merely to engage in activity is not sufficient. If by activity you exclude the best occupation of all, that of an intercessory ministry, to be a successful co-labourer, you need to have a mind to work and a heart to pray. And it seems to me that two things can be deduced about the praying on the part of these people here.

First of all, it was a prayer of imitation. A prayer of imitation. You say, what do I mean by this? Well, who taught these people to pray? None other than Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is a great man of prayer. We have seen this earlier. When first he heard of the terrible condition of the walls at Jerusalem, he's back, you remember, in Shushan, in the king's palace in Persia.

Well, what does he do? Well, he spends 16 to 20-odd weeks on his knees in prayer, with fasting, you remember, intensely bringing before God the condition at Jerusalem. And when in chapter 2 we saw him before Artaxerxes and the king asked him why he looked so sad, Nehemiah, before he answers the king's question, he offers a prayer to the Lord. He is a man who is saturated in the ministry of intercession.

Now, a leader is often imitated by his people. I think this is a point which we must concede. I see nothing unbiblical about this.

The apostle Paul, writing, was it to the church at Philippi, said, be ye followers of me as I am of the Lord. Imitate me, not in a parrot fashion, not in a superficial way, but rather the very fruits of the Spirit that you see in my life that basically come through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. May they be reproduced in your own.

Like produces like. Here is Nehemiah, a man of prayer. He sees the condition of the walls at Jerusalem.

He realises the impossibility of the task and he's driven to his knees. So the citizens also engage in prayer, a prayer of imitation. It's singularly important to realise that in the work of God nothing is ever achieved apart from a man by his knees before God.

Moses' life was successful, yes, that is true, but you find the reason for that success in the prayer life of Moses. Daniel is a man who receives one of the greatest accolades in Scripture. He is referred to as a friend of God, a man beloved of God, and his success is explained by his prayer life.

The Lord Jesus Christ prays and prays and prays before his baptism, before he selects the disciples, before the transfiguration in Gethsemane and even on the cross. His life is a prayer. Now we are to imitate the Lord Jesus.

Here, I say, is another aspect of the secret of being a successful co-worker, a mind to work, a heart to pray, the prayer of imitation. But secondly, the reason for this prayer was because of intimidation, of intimidation. These men had come across difficulty.

That is very clear in the first four verses of the first three verses of chapter four. They were building this wall and Sanballat and Tobiah and the rest of the enemies of Israel. They didn't like what Nehemiah was about and so they hurled shafts of abuse.

What do these feeble Jews, those two, do? What do they think they're about? Will they fortify themselves? And Tobiah the Ammonite comes along and he says, you know that wall? You think it's so good? If there was a wild fox that jumped over the wall and touched it with his paws as he was in flight, he'd knock the thing flat. Abuse, intimidation. The intimidation grew further.

It grew more. And they conspired together, verse seven, to stop the progress of the work of God at Jerusalem. Now, I say that the point is obvious.

Whenever a man engages, whenever a community of people engage in the service of God, there is opposition. Jesus was opposed. What did he do when he was opposed? Well, when reviled against, he did not revile himself, but rather he came to the Lord God and he offered his prayer to the Heavenly Father.

Time is beating me again this morning. Let me remind you briefly, without turning to the Scripture, Acts chapter four. The disciples there have been, or two of them have been in prison.

Great threatenings and great remarks are being made about the church of Jesus Christ in a very hurtful fashion. The church is being persecuted. So what do the early disciples do? What do the early members of the church do? They fall down before the Lord God.

You see, intimidation causes intercession. When you're brought to your wit's end, you go down on your knees. That's the case for the redeemed community down the years of history.

Well, here is Nehemiah and his men. They're going to be successful in the work of God. Why? Well, they have a mind to work and a heart to pray.

But finally, and this conveniently clinches my homiletics and makes it easy for you to remember, the gist of the teaching in these two chapters, they have an eye to watch. An eye to watch. Look at the last part of verse nine of chapter four.

Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them, day and night, because of them. Do you not know that Christian people are engaged in a fight, a fight against evil forces? Against principalities and powers? Against wickedness in high places? Against the rulers of this world? There is a fight on. Now Jesus taught his disciples no less.

He instructed them to watch and pray. Peter tells us to be vigilant because our adversary, the devil, is as a roaring lion who goes around seeking whom he might devour. In the midst of what? Well, there will be opposition, opposition to the cause of Christ.

How does it come? It comes inwardly, it comes outwardly, and it needs something constantly exercised in your life. What do I mean by inwardly? Well, you see, as I shall be showing you next week, if the devil can sow some dissension within the local church, then probably the work of God will be accomplished without being slowed down. If the devil can make an inroad into my life, then he will bluntly raise the edge of my evangelistic usefulness.

If he can in some way get me to compromise upon the teaching of Jesus Christ, then he knows full well that I will not know the power of the Spirit to its full in my own life. I need to set a watch inwardly as a local community of God's children, but also outwardly. Why? Well, you see, there'll be the Sanballats and the Tobias, there'll be the opposition party in the 20th century as there was in Nehemiah's time, people who are ridiculous, they'll scoff, they'll mock.

The evangelicals do not know what an evangelical is. He has no religious crutch to go through life. He can't understand and come to terms with the fact that there is no such thing as God.

He admits to a revelation of God in a book which is filled with contradictions and so on and so forth. The ridicule that's heaped upon the Church of Jesus, particularly in the 20th century, it affects our young people at university and at college. It affects every thinking person.

Well, what do you do in the force of this opposition? Well, you recognise that such opposition will come. It's not a child of the 20th century. It was there, as I say, in Nehemiah's time.

It was there in the time of our Lord or shortly after his ascension. The disciples were being ridiculed. Here is Paul at Athens.

He's preaching about the resurrection. Resurrection, Paul, you must be absolutely beside yourself. There is no such thing.

The materialistic and the secular world of the first century was not the most conducive environment for the propagation of the Gospel. There's always been cynicism. There's always been scorn heaped upon the Church of Jesus.

Well, what do you do in the face of such opposition? Well, you watch. You do not panic. You realise that this is just another attempt of the evil one on the wall being built to stop the expansive work of the kingdom.

Inwardly, outwardly, you are to watch and also constantly. We set a watch against them day and night. And day and night we are to be on our guard.

The devil does not sleep. And so each day we need, at the close of the day, to commit our lives to Jesus. The beginning of a new day we need to commit our lives to the Saviour.

Inwardly, outwardly, committing everything that we do, committing the whole evangelical scene to the Lord, bringing the situation as we have in Cambodia and Uganda and throughout the world, always bringing it to the Lord, always watching and seeing the assaults of the enemy and seeing that these three factors are taken together going to promote successful co-labourers of the Lord Jesus, people who have a mind to work, a heart to pray and an eye to watch. But give me two minutes more. If you were to read through chapter 3 and spot the odd man out, I wonder if you would easily do this.

Here in this chapter are listed the men, individuals and the groups who engage in the service of God. But there's one particular group that stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. Look at the fifth verse of chapter 3. Next unto them the Techoites repaired, but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.

Here were people who were not successful co-labourers. They didn't want to work at all. Oh, they'd listen to Nehemiah.

It was a great sermon he preached. That man's got vision. That man's going places.

Let's send him a donation. And that was the end of it. A donation can be cheap.

You see, it's not money alone. In fact, that's one of the smallest things, the cheapest things that cost less to contribute towards the kingdom of God. It's not that alone that God wants.

Successful labourers are those who just write out a check. You can write out a check and it doesn't hurt you one little bit. Successful labourers are those with a mind to work, a heart to pray, an eye to watch.

I wonder how many odd men out we have in the 20th century evangelical church not opposed to the work. These people weren't. They thought Nehemiah was going great guns.

The key, the prospect, the work. The walls were going to be rebuilt. The gates were going to be rehung.

Go to it, Nehemiah. Ah, says Nehemiah, but I need somebody to build. Will you do that little bit? Will you pray about this little thing? Will you work in this capacity? Now, let the others be co-labourers, but not us.

The odd men out there nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord. May it be that as a local church we don't have any of that group of people. May it be that we're all excited before God to advance His cause here through the tabernacle.

May we have a mind to work, a heart to pray, an eye to watch. Amen. Father, help us once again to appreciate that the warfare of the Church of God shall not stop until our Saviour shall appear.

May we therefore not be like some were idly standing by in the marketplace when there was work to do. Give us a mind to work together. Give us a heart to pray together.

Give us an eye that is corporately watchful that we as a community of your people may be successful co-labourers with our Saviour in the erection of the Church. Amen.