[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 Feet,
soaring through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Turn in your Bibles to
the book of Nehemiah. Let's get ready in
the book of Nehemiah. Tonight, as we look out the
plane in our 30,000-foot view, we are seeing migrations
from Persia to Jerusalem, three of them if we consider
last week and this week together, three movements
of Jews from Babylon-- actually now from Persia since
the Medo-Persians have taken over the world-- three of those migrations
of about 50,000 people total going from Medo-Persia
about 900 miles to Jerusalem. The first group that came
back came under the leader named Zerubbabel. Remember him last time? I'm saying his name
slowly because it's not a name that you're going to be
familiar with unless you read some of these portions
of the Old Testament, like Ezra or like some
of the minor prophets. So Zerubbabel brings
the first group back. Ezra brings the
second group back. And now the third group
coming back from Medo-Persia to Jerusalem comes
under the leadership of a guy named Nehemiah. Now, some of us identify with
Old Testament characters. There's probably one
or two that you love, and you go, man, I identify
with that one-- maybe Joseph. Maybe like Joseph, your
brothers didn't like you. And yet the Lord has
just arranged your life in such a way that He just
showed you favor anyway. Or others, if you
relate to Daniel, standing up against a
world, a sea of unbelievers. And you just really love
the faithfulness of Daniel. You relate to him. Many love David and relate
to David, those psalms. Maybe he's more of the emotional
type in some of those psalms, and you relate to him. But probably very few
of you say, Nehemiah, he's my favorite. I identify with him. Maybe you do. I think if my dad had been
a student of Old Testament Scripture more than he was,
he probably would have known Nehemiah and said,
I relate to him, because my dad was a builder. He loved to take land, subdivide
it, sell it off, develop it, sell houses on it. He saw potential. Nehemiah was such a man. He goes from cupbearer
to construction builder. He is a cupbearer
for a king in Persia. And he becomes a
construction builder for the kingdom of
Judah in Jerusalem, bringing back a group of people. He is a contemporary with Ezra,
though Ezra was probably older than he was. And it takes Nehemiah a
total of 52 days along with the people in
Jerusalem to finish building the protective wall
around the city of Jerusalem at the time. One of the key verses
is Nehemiah chapter 6. And, yes, I am reading ahead. But after all, this
is a 30,000-foot view. In chapter 6 of
Nehemiah, verse 15, "So the wall was finished on the
25th day of the month of Elul in 52 days." Now, we're going
to see what he has done in the meantime
in those 52 days and how those walls
were built. Rebuilding something that is
busted up, that is ruined is a daunting task. And it takes not just
one but several people with a common desire and a
common plan to see it through. I remember when I had the
privilege several years ago after the Towers
fell in New York City after 9/11, September 11, 2001. I had a privilege of
spending about 20, 22 days working at Ground
Zero along with the workers there in New York City. I was credentialed
with the Red Cross. I became an FBI chaplain. And so we had access
down to Ground Zero. And I just remember
every worker every day looking at that gigantic mess,
that hole, those Towers that had collapsed, and trying
to get parts of bodies out, people out,
identify who they were, and just that whole
part of Manhattan so utterly devastated,
destroyed, everything affected, and the sense of despair at the
thought of not only the loss but the prospect of rebuilding
such huge buildings. Now you go there today, and
it's a complete makeover, completely different. But in those days,
a daunting task. Nehemiah, as we call him,
his Hebrew pronunciation is Neh-ha-me-ah. And Neh-ha-me-ah means
"Yahweh comforts" or "God is my comforter." And he becomes a
comforter to those people living in Jerusalem as he comes
back now to build the wall. The temple has been built
by Ezra and his gang. But now that protective
wall needs to be built. Nehemiah was born in
captivity, meaning he had never seen Jerusalem before. Keep that in mind as
we get into chapter 1. A couple of verses are
insightful into his character, having never seen Jerusalem,
born in captivity, raised in captivity. He had never known freedom
until a certain request that he makes to the
king that he serves. Now I'm going to sum up the
book for you in three words. I always give you an outline
when we do a 30,000-foot view like this. But I'm going to give you
three words that sum up the whole book of Nehemiah-- rebuilding,
reviving, resettling. Those three words sum
up the entire portion of the book of the Bible
called Nehemiah-- rebuilding, reviving, resettling. The first seven chapters
are about rebuilding a city's protection. Nehemiah is all about
securing the wall, getting the gaps in the
wall secure, finished, the gates hung so that
the city is protected. So rebuilding a
city's protection, that's chapters 1 through 7. Second word, reviving. Chapters 8 through
10 are about reviving a city's passion, their passion
for God, their worship of God, and their obedience
to the word of God. The third section is resettling. They are resettling
the city's population. They have to move
some people around, as you'll see in
chapters 11 through 13. Let's begin, then, with
the first, rebuilding. The book of Nehemiah
opens up not in Jerusalem but in the kingdom of Persia. And in this chapter and in the
first few chapters, Nehemiah discovers, Nehemiah
weeps, Nehemiah prays, Nehemiah travels,
Nehemiah builds. That is the activity
that you will see. Chapter 1, verse 1-- "The words of Nehemiah,
the son of Hakaliah-- it came to pass in the
month of Chislev"-- that's the late autumn, late
November, early December-- "in the 20th year that I
was in Shushan the citadel." Now, you know that
Babylon had once been in control of the world, right? You know that. You know that the Medo-Persian
Empire took over from Babylon. You know that. So the leadership of
the Persian Empire was always in one
of three places. I mentioned one
of them last time. I just want to reiterate this. In the winter months,
they would rule from Babylon, which was the
center of the Babylonian Empire at one time but now taken over
by the Medes and the Persians. But Babylon, the
city of Babylon, is a great place to
spend the winter. Think of Palm
Springs or Phoenix. Great place to be in
the winter, not so great to be in the summer. So they would be in
Babylon in the winter. In the springtime of the
year or the cooler months of the year as it's just
starting to cool down, they would move to Shushan
or Susa, the city of Susa. And then in the summer
months when it got hot, they moved into
the mountain range in a place called Ecbatana. And Ecbatana is where the
royal records were kept, the archives of the kingdom. You want to find out who
reigned when and what edict was given at what time,
you have to look in Ecbatana. So we are in that
part of the year where they're still in
Shushan the citadel. So Nehemiah says, I was in
Shushan or the city of Susa in the palace, the citadel. "Then Hanani, one
of my brethren, came with men from Judah. And I ask them concerning
the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity,
concerning Jerusalem." So he sees a guy that he
knows has gone to Jerusalem and come back. And so he's just
shooting the breeze. Hey, tell me what's
happened since they've gone back to Jerusalem. I know that a bunch of
them, 50,000 almost, went. So how's that going? But this is what he hears. Verse 3-- "He said
to me, 'The survivors who are left from the
captivity in the province are there in great
distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem
is also broken down, and its gates are
burned with fire.'" At hearing this,
Nehemiah's ears perked up like a doberman pincher because
he knows what that means. You may have a temple
built. Yes, they did. You may have worship occurring. Yes, it was. But if you have no wall,
you have no protection. And the gates are
burned with fire still? The destruction of the
Babylonian captivity are still there? That's all they've done
is build the temple? The walls are not intact? So he knows what that means. In verse 4, "So it was
when I heard these words that I sat down and wept." Very interesting insight
into the kind of man he was-- emotionally moved, couldn't
hold back the tears, had never been to
Jerusalem, was just getting information about
what's going on in Jerusalem. He falls down. "I sat down and I
wept and mourned"-- not for a moment, not
for the rest of the day-- but "for many days. I was fasting and praying
before the God of heaven." In his prayer--
we don't have time to go through all of this
chapter, all of this book. But he prays. He confesses the
sins of the nation in the plural pronoun "we." So he identifies
himself with their sin. Down in verse 11,
"O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive
to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer
of Your servants who desire to fear Your name. And let Your servant
prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy
in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer." Who is the king? The king is a guy by the
name of Artaxerxes, full name Artaxerxes Longimanus. Very interesting person. He happened to be the
stepson of somebody you know named Queen Esther. Queen Esther had been
married to Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus was this guy's father. Ahasuerus is off the scene. So now Artaxerxes is king. He says, "I was the
king's cupbearer." There was probably no more
position closer to the king except for his wife than
being the cupbearer. It was a very trusted position. The cupbearer meant that you
would taste the king's food and taste the king's wine
before it ever got to the king. So if somebody poisoned
the food or the wine, long live the king. But you better look
for another cupbearer. That's how close
Nehemiah was to the king. Now, according to
ancient protocol, to be a cupbearer of the king of
Persia, you had to be cultured. You had to be
knowledgeable in law. You had to be
conversant in politics. And you had to be handsome. You had to have all those
things working for you. You had to be a man
of high integrity, good-looking guy, a
knowledgeable person, intelligent person. And so he hears. He prays. He weeps. He prays, asks God
for the next step. It's been said that big
doors swing on small hinges. And now you're going to see how
God uses a simple conversation that Nehemiah will have with
the king that he serves. But I find it interesting
that Nehemiah, in hearing what's going
on in Jerusalem, sits down and he weeps. He's never been to Jerusalem. But his heart-- though
he lives in Persia, his heart is in
Jerusalem, as is the heart of every true Jewish person. It's amazing the connection
that the Jewish people have for Jerusalem. In fact, some of you
who aren't even Jewish, but you've been
with us to Israel-- when you pull into Jerusalem and
you see it for the first time, so many people on our
tour buses just break out and start weeping. It's like this
connection that goes. But for the Jew,
it's so much deeper. You know the psalm that says,
"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand
forget its cunning. May my tongue cleave
to the roof of my mouth if I forget Zion
as my chief joy." So Nehemiah, feeling that
pull, feeling that tug-- if it helps, think
of it this way. He sat down and wept. He knelt down and prayed. And then he stood up and worked. That follows his life as
we see it in this book. Chapter 2-- notice how
innocuously it opens. It's sort of a bland
opening of chapter 2. It says, "And it came to
pass in the month of Nissan in the 20th year of
King Artaxerxes." Yeah, see, that
doesn't move you. But now listen to it
in the Living Bible. "One day in April,
four months later." Here's why I'm giving it
to you in the Living Bible. Nehemiah prayed
fervently, but it's been four months before he
sees any answer to prayer. Now, he's weeping, man. He's fervent. He is so intense in his prayer. It's not, "O Lord, bless
this food in Jesus." It's just-- it's intense, man. And you read his prayer,
and you see the intensity. And you think,
man, this prayer's got to be answered tomorrow
or at least in a week. But weeks go by. Months go by. But one day in April,
God answers this prayer. Take heart when your
fervent, effective prayers-- the Bible says they
avail much but don't get answered the next
day or the next moment. Don't walk away and
say, I prayed about it. It never happened. Keep at it. He mourned for many days. He fasted. He prayed. But four months later,
God's about to answer it. So verse 1, "It came to
pass in the month of Nissan in the 20th year
of King Artaxerxes when the wine was before
him that I took the wine and gave it to the king." So he tried it first, didn't
drop dead, gave it to the King. "Now I had never been sad
in his presence before." What a statement. I never was bummed out. I smiled all the time. You'll find out why in a moment. "Therefore, the king said to
me, 'Why is your face sad?'" Why art thou so bummed out? [LAUGHTER] "'Since you are not sick? This is nothing but
sorrow of heart.' So I became dreadfully
afraid and said to the King, 'May the king live
forever.'" He's worried. May the king live forever. I might not live past the
end of the day, but may the king live forever. "'Why should my face not
be sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs,
lies waste and its gates are burned with fire?'" Servants in the Persian
court were always expected to put on a
happy-- a professional face. You're in the workplace. People come in. You can't wear your
heart on your sleeve, before the king of Persia
especially and just, man, I'm sort of bummed out. I just got to really be
authentic with you, king. No, none of that. Your head will be lifted
off your shoulders. [LAUGHTER] So the idea was the king has
to be protected from sadness. So you would act merry,
put on the best face. Verse 4, "The king said to me,
'what do you request?'" Wow, what a setup. Talk about teeing up the ball. So what is it you want? So he's praying. He's sad. Four months go by. The king goes, what do you want? What a great moment this is. What do you request? "So I prayed to
the God of heaven." Since you have your
Bible open, turn with me to Proverbs chapter 21. A verse I mentioned
last week, I want you to look at it with
your own eyes this week-- chapter 21 of Proverbs, verse 1. "The king's heart is in
the hand of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, He
turns it wherever He wishes." It's a great verse. I hope you know it. I hope you mark it. I hope you memorize it. The king's heart is
in the Lord's hand. He can turn that heart. He can make things happen. He can deal with your boss, the
people who are hassling you, troubling you. Are you having
trouble with somebody? Then take their name
and write it just in verse 1, chapter 21 above
where it says the king's heart. Your boss's heart is in
the hand of the Lord. Your husband's heart is
in the hand of the Lord. That creepy dude who cut you
off on the way to church tonight is in the hand of the Lord. The person who stole
your car, cussed you out is in the hand of the Lord. So the king says,
what do you want? And then it says, "So I prayed." How do you think he prayed? Silently. Silently, quickly. The king done ask you question,
and he gets on his knees and goes, "Our father who art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name." That wouldn't work
before the king. And you can't take too
much time because the king would get suspicious. So it's what I call
a popcorn prayer. So I prayed, God help me
right now in Jesus' name. Of course, he wouldn't praying
in Jesus' name at that time. But he just shot up a quick
one, shot it up to heaven. "I prayed to the God of heaven." Verse 5-- "I said to the
king, 'If it pleases the king and if your servant has
found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me.'"
He's a trusted person in the king's court. But he's saying, relieve me of
my duty and "'send me to Judah, to the city of my
fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it.'" Now,
that's a heart because he's got it made. He's in the palace. He gets the best food, the
best wine, the best position, the best comfort,
closest to the king. He's asking to go
to the city whose gates are burned with fire. No protection. He says, "Send me." So he's bold with his request. The king notices he's sad. He prays. He stands up, and he's
respectful but bold. Here's the principle. When you kneel before
the King in heaven, you can stand before
any king on Earth. Amen. Amen. He stands up, and he says,
I'll tell you what I want. I want you to send me to Judah,
to the place of my ancestry, that I may get
involved in the work. Verse 11-- "So I
came to Jerusalem. I was there three days." Now Ezra had already
been there 14 years by the time Nehemiah
comes to the city. I'm sure they were
glad to see each other. But look at verse 12. "Then I arose in the night,
I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God put
in my heart to do at Jerusalem." Now, he will tell them. But at first, he tells no one. It's just in his heart. He's wrestling with it. He's trying to figure
out a game plan. "Nor was there
any animal with me except the one in which I rode." So he goes out to survey the
walls at night, I imagine, under a full moon. He's with his donkey, goes
out just to survey and assess the need, to inspect the wall. He did not immediately
go into action. Now, again, I see lots of
principles in this book. Don't have time to go
through all of them. But this is an important one. He didn't hit the ground in
Jerusalem and go, "I'm here. Let's get to work right now. I heard about this place. Yeah, you built a temple,
but the walls are busted up. The gates are still burnt. Come on." He first kept it inside, no
doubt praying as he went, praying as he surveyed, trying
to get a plan going first before he started working. One of my favorite AW Tozer
quotes goes like this. "Aimless activity is beneath
the worth and dignity of a human being. The great weight of
exhortation these days is in the direction
of zeal and activity. 'Let's get going' is
the favorite watchword for Gospel workers
with the result that everyone feels ashamed
to sit down and think." Nehemiah has to go
around the walls and think first before he
speaks, before they work. He just wants to take it all
in and think before the zeal, before the activity. After this, he
rallies the people. They're all on board. Let's build. Let's do it. Now, it's a great plan. It's under the
providence of God. It's under the
favor of the king. Therefore, expect opposition. Please remember this principle. If you think, I'm in God's
will and therefore everything's just going to flow smoothly,
you will be shocked a lot. In fact, many of you, if
that is your attitude, will stop working for the Lord. Verse 19-- "But"-- uh-oh. "But." That means that's not a good
sign if everything's good, they're going to build-- "but." "But when Sanballat
the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite
official"-- those are sworn enemies of the Jews-- "and Geshem the Arab heard
of it, they laughed at us and despised us
and said, 'What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel
against the King?'" Well, of course not. They're not rebelling
against the king. They're responding to the king. The king said go. Nehemiah asked permission. The king gave him permission. But they're all acting
all haughty and cool, and we represent the king. They had no clue. "So I answered them
and said to them, 'The God of heaven Himself'"--
interesting response. Nehemiah didn't put his chest
out and go, let me tell you something about the king. I was his cupbearer, dude. I was as close to the
king as you could get. He gave me permission. He didn't even bring
the king's name up. He says, "The God
of heaven Himself." He appeals to the King of kings. "The God of heaven
Himself will prosper us. Therefore, we His servants
will arise and build. But you have no heritage
or right or memorial in Jerusalem." So now the plot thickens. He comes to Jerusalem
after hearing the report. He starts in motion
the idea of rebuilding the protective walls. And as soon as he
does, the enemies come. And you're going to
read about these enemies all through the book
to the very end. Ever heard of Murphy's law? Yes. You've heard about it, right? Yes. Do you know who came up with it? Do you know what it is? Tell me. What is Murphy's law? If anything can go wrong-- That's it. If anything can go
wrong, it will go wrong. It started on an
American Air Force Base in California, Edwards
Air Force Base, started by a guy named Murphy. They were doing
a bunch of tests. I won't get into the minutia. But he came up with this idea,
and it became kind of coined as Murphy's law. So you know that. But there's another law
you need to know about. It's called Lucifer's law. And Lucifer's law is this. Whatever God loves, Satan hates. So if you attach yourself
to what God loves, and if Satan hates that, you
can expect some opposition. If you do right, if
you live righteously, expect to be attacked. I believe that if
Nehemiah would have gone to anywhere else in the
Persian Empire to build a city, he would not have gotten
the kind of blowback that he got here. And whenever you undertake
any work for God, expect to get a bullseye
put on your back. You're a target. Get prepared to pay the price. Think of David, a simple
shepherd enjoying the stars, enjoying his sheep,
enjoying life until the day Samuel the prophet
said, you're the next king. Then for a decade of
his life, the king of Israel tried
to kill him, tried to put a spear
through him, tried to eliminate that one who would
be that messianic fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah. So just a friendly caution. Satan would love nothing more
than to take the wind out of your sails. Don't let him. Don't let him. Know it's coming. Don't let it happen. Let's see what happens. Chapter 3, they build. Jerusalem gets an
extreme makeover. In 52 days, they take
a pile of rubble, they build up those walls,
surrounded by enemies, and they finish it. Now, if you go to
Jerusalem today and we show you some
of the piles of stones and some of the rubble,
you'll get all excited. Wow. Look at that pile of rubble. That's so cool. Man, that was part of that
building and that time, and it's in the Bible. But a pile of rubble to
people in Nehemiah's day wasn't, wow, what a
cool tour we're on. It's like, what an
enormous job we have to do. It brought despair to them,
not joy, not encouragement because those rocks should be
up on a wall to protect them. So they go to building. And the chapter begins
by showing them building the northern wall of Jerusalem. I'm going to give you
relative directions now. They start on the northern
wall, work their way to the western side and
then the southern side, then the east side. So they move counterclockwise. And in chapter 3, there's a
phrase that is used 16 times. If you see it, you
just might want to circle it a couple times. It's the word "next to"
or the phrase "next to." This guy worked
next to this guy. This group worked
next to this group. This section worked
next to that section. They're next to each other. They're working together
with, not against, each other. So the work of building
is not one man's job. It's the job of the team. In fact, understand this. 38 individuals are
mentioned in chapter 3, and 42 different groups
are mentioned in chapter 3. They're identified. Nehemiah's name isn't
mentioned once in chapter 3. It's this group and that
group and this person and that person. And they all work together. Yes, Nehemiah is there. But he is not mentioned. That's how the church works. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
12, "The body is not one member but many members." Moses learned that. His father-in-law Jethro--
not Bodine but Jethro, the father-in-law of
Moses, the Midianite-- said, Moses, what you're
doing is not good. You need help. Moses had to understand that one
person, no matter how gifted, can do the ministry alone. You need a team. You need a group. So it is with the church. The church is not
a spectator sport, where I'm going
to come to church, and my job in my church-- here's my job in my church. I come to watch. That's what I do. I come to the feeding
trough, and I eat. I come to the gas station, and
I get filled up, fill my tank. I get ministered to. Then I live my week. Then I come back. That's a good start. But just to come to the
field and sit in the dugout and not get out on the field
becomes a problem eventually. I loved how one
coach was asked, what is the definition of football? And he said, here's my
definition of football. It's 22 men on the
field who desperately need rest and 50,000 people in
the grandstands who desperately need exercise. [LAUGHTER] And isn't it funny? One of those fans
or a lot of them-- one of the players
on the field does something they don't
like, [GRUMBLES] you're a horrible player. Boo. Well, he's just
munching his Doritos, gaining weight up there,
doing nothing at all. Couldn't make that
play to save his life. [LAUGHTER] But I digress. Chapter 4 is more opposition. I'm going to quickly
move through it and then show you opposition of
four different kinds, first of all,
opposition of ridicule. Verse 1-- "But it so
happened when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall
that he was furious and very indignant and mocked the
Jews or ridiculed them. And he spoke before his brethren
and the army of Samaria." So evidently, he's brought an
army with him just in case. He wants to be prepared
for military action, probably provoke a war. So "he spoke before his
brethren and the army of Samaria and said, 'What are
these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones
from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burned?' Now Tobiah the Ammonite
was beside him and said, 'Whatever they build,
if a fox goes up on it, he will break down
their stone wall.'" Wow. That's ridicule. What does Nehemiah do? What's his response? Does he go out there, let
me tell you guys something? Look at his response. Verse 4-- "Hear, O God." See, here's a man who knew. When I'm touched with a need
and I fall on my knees and pray, it might be four months
before I see the answer. But that prayer worked. So he saw in his own life the
evidence of answered prayer. So immediately, he
hears the ridicule. He prays. "Hear, O our God,
for we are despised. Turn their reproach
on their own heads"-- kind of a mafia prayer-- "and give them as plunder
into a land of captivity." I pray, Lord, that you bring
a nation to take them captive. Wow. Verse 6-- "So we built the wall. And the entire wall was joined
together up to half its height, for the people had
a mind to work." I love that. It's one of my favorite verses
in this, my favorite book of the Bible this week. [LAUGHTER] Nehemiah. "The people had a mind to work." Not a mind a watch. Not a mind to mock. Not a mind to gossip. Not a mind to disrupt. But a mind to work. That's good. But the opposition won't stop. The opposition,
we've already seen, comes, and it will continue. And that's important
just to make note of. When you attempt anything
for God, get used to it. You'll have opposition. Listen to these verses. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 12-- "Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of eternal life." Why would Paul have to write
about the Christian life like it's a fight? Because it is. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 3-- "You must endure hardship as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ." We're in a battle together, not
a playground, a battleground. 2 Timothy chapter 4-- "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." So that's the first opposition,
the opposition of ridicule. Second is the opposition
of discouragement. Chapter 4, verse 10-- "Then Judah said"-- not
the person of Judah. He's long gone. The tribe of Judah, the
people in Jerusalem. "Then Judah," these
people, "said, 'The strength of the
laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish
that we are not able to build the wall.'" Why do they call it rubbish? Because in verse 2, the
enemies called it rubbish. In verse 2, the enemy said,
will they revive the stones from the heap of rubbish? They heard the enemy say that. Now they're believing the spin. You just say something over
and over and over again, and people start-- that's where their mind goes. So what was once rocks to
them is now rubbish to them. These stones, these
precious rocks that are part of God's
wall to protect the city, it's just rubbish. They're pretty low
in their spirits. That's the opposition
of discouragement. So Nehemiah responds to this. Verse 14-- "And I looked and
arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, to the
rest of the people, 'Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord,
great and awesome, and fight for your brethren,
your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.' And it happened when our enemies
heard that it was known to us and that God had brought their
plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall,
everyone to his work." So Nehemiah responded to
this by encouraging those who were discouraged in building. Chapter 5, we have a
third kind of opposition. Let's call this opposition
by greed or selfishness. What's going on is this. There's a famine. Things aren't growing very well. Crops aren't growing very well. And the leaders unfortunately
are raising the taxes, hurting the people
by high taxes. So you got a famine. You've got high taxes. Then people are lending money
with a high interest rate, an exorbitant interest rate. That's called usury. Look down in verse 7. Nehemiah gets mad about this. "After serious thought,
I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said to them,
'Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.' So I called a great
assembly against them. And I said to them,
'According to our ability, we have redeemed
our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you
even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?' Then they were silenced
and found nothing to say." You get his logic. We just came out
of captivity, man. We were sold to another nation. We came back from
that captivity. You're taking them
captive again by the way you are lending to them, making
them in bondage once again. Now, in chapter 6, we have
another form of opposition. I'm going to call it
opposition by distraction. The enemies come, verse 2,
and they say to Nehemiah, "'Come let us meet together
among the villages in the plain of Ono.' But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to
them, saying, 'Oh, no. [LAUGHTER] I am doing a great work, so that
I cannot come down.'" I love this, too. This is another one of my
favorite verses in the book. I'm busy doing God's work. I don't have time for
the lightweight stuff. I don't have time. "I am doing a great work,
so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while
I leave it and go down to you?" It's a great answer. I was reading an article
the last couple of days. I get these articles
sent to me, and I think the article was like
"13 Habits of Insanely Successful People." And one of the quotes was
from Warren Buffett, who said, the difference between
a successful person and a very successful person
is a very successful person says no most of the time. He is so or she is so
narrowed down the focus. So this is what I'm good at. This is what I'm called to. I'm not going to do
that other stuff. That's important stuff. It's urgent stuff. But it's not important
to me right now. This is what I'm going to
do and get others to do it, but I won't do it. I'm not coming down. Well, that didn't go very
well with the enemies. They did this. They requested to meet with
him four different times after this. When you're opposed
by people, you're going to have to learn how
to turn off those voices who clamor for attention
and just plow right through their intimidation,
the intimidation of the critic. Just keep going. Keep plowing. Finally, chapter 6, verse 15,
I read it to you a moment ago. "So the wall was finished"-- Woohoo. Yeah-- "on the
25th day of Elul"-- that's October-- "in 52 days." This is one of the key
verses of the book. "And it happened when all
our enemies heard of it and all the nations
around us saw these things that they were very
disheartened in their own eyes." It's about time. "For they perceive that this
work was done by our God." Now, in chapter
7, there's a list. There's a lot of names in it-- leaders, citizens, those
who returned from Persia to Jerusalem, and were a lot
of different portions of land. Now let's begin in
chapter 8 where we come to the second section, right? We said that you can divide
the book into the three words-- rebuilding, and now
the second word, and that is reviving, reviving
a city's passion, chapters 8 through 10. Now I mentioned a
couple verses that are some of my favorite
verses, right, in the book. This is my favorite chapter. Truly is, to me, the
highlight of the book. I'm calling chapter 8
the Water Gate Revival. Yeah. Now, when I say Water Gate,
some of you were around in 1974, was it? Was that when Watergate
happened in Washington under President Nixon? That was a scandal
that occurred. This is another Water Gate
that was a place in Jerusalem called the Water
Gate, one of the gates in the wall of the
city by the Gihon Spring facing the Kidron Valley. So chapter 8 is where they get
together and they consecrate. After construction
comes consecration. Now, Ezra, remember
him last week? I mentioned Ezra is in
Jerusalem when Nehemiah comes. Ezra now enters the scene. He has been there as
a spiritual leader. Now he comes on the scene. Verse 1, chapter 8-- "Now all the people
gathered together as one man in the open
square, the large patio that was in front of the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe
to bring the Bible, bring the Book of the
Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest
brought the Law before the assembly
of men and women and all who could hear
with understanding on the first day of
the seventh month." That's Rosh Hashanah. That's the Jewish new year. And the seventh month has
all those great feasts like the Feast of Tabernacles,
the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Yom Kippur. So it is that month. Verse 3-- "Then he read
from it in the open square that was in front
of the Water Gate from morning until midday." He read the Book of
the Law, the Bible. He's reading Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy half a day. That's a long sermon. It's a long reading. "He read it from
morning till midday before the men and the women
and all who could understand, and the ears of
all the people were attentive to the
Book of the Law." I'm guessing like six hours. This is a spiritual appetite. Man, if you've been deprived
of Bible study for a long time, it's like they're salivating
as he's reading Leviticus. [LAUGHTER] Verse 4-- "So Ezra the scribe
stood on a platform of wood." The Old King James
says a pulpit of wood. Verse 5-- "And Ezra
opened the book in the sight of all
the people, for he was standing above all the people. And when he opened it,
all the people stood up." Verse 6-- "Ezra blessed
the Lord, the great God. And all the people
answered, 'Amen! Amen!' So it's OK
for you to do that. Amen! If you like a truth, if you
like a truth when you hear it, shout it out. Amen. Amen. Get vocal. I'm good with that. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know what it means, right? So be it. Let it be. I agree with that. So they shouted, "'Amen! Amen!' while lifting
up their hands. And they bowed their heads
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground." Verse 8-- "So they
read distinctly from the book in the
Law of God and gave the sense or the
meaning and helped them to understand the reading." Amen. This is expository preaching. This is where you take
a text of Scripture, drill down, explain the meaning
of the text of the Scripture. And it's not just my favorite
topic or a little exhortation here and there. It's Bible study
and Bible teaching, and it's expositional. The people had an
appetite for that. Ezra gave it to them. "And Nehemiah, who
was the governor, Ezra the priest and the
scribe, all the Levites who taught the people
said to the people, 'This day is holy to
the Lord, your God. Do not mourn nor weep.' For all the people
wept when they heard the words of the Law. And then he said to
them, 'Go your way. Eat the fat. Drink the sweet. Send portions to those for
whom nothing is prepared, for this day is
holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of
the Lord is your strength.'" Amen. It's great that
they were convicted. There is a time for that. But the leaders
knew today, yeah, I know you're listening to this,
and it's gripping your heart and convicting
you of the sin you and your forefathers
have committed. But today's a day of joy,
a day of consecration. So Ezra unrolls the scroll. As he unrolls the scroll or
opens the book, as says here, people stood up. By the way, that
is a practice that still goes on in the synagogue. When you open the Word
of God, people stand. In many churches,
there's a reading at the beginning of the service. Many Protestant churches reopen
the Bible for like a Psalm. The people stand up and
maybe read the section and then sit down. So here's what I want
to say before we move on to finish the book. There has never been revival,
genuine revival without people returning to the Word of God. Look at it in church history. The Protestant Reformation
in the 16th century was a Catholic priest
who rebelled against all of the traditions of
the church and said, we don't even know what the
Bible says in this church. We need to find-- go back to the Bible. And he taught through
the Scriptures. And it was revival based
upon the reading of and the exposition of Scripture. First Great Awakening
in the United States, Second Great Awakening
in the United States-- first in England and
the United States, second and third in
the United States-- based on the Scripture from
Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, et cetera. A return back to the Bible. Let's get back to the Bible. Let's read the Bible again. That is what brings revival. A man was in India, and
he heard a leader talk about revival
happening in India. But the particular Indian
dialect that he was speaking, he put it this way. (INDIAN ACCENT) We are
having a great re-Bible. [LAUGHTER] I like that, a re-Bible. You bring the Bible in
again, and the re-Bible brings the revival. Amen. That's good. So here, they go
back to the Word. Ezra gives exposition. Well, by the 24th
day of that month-- days have gone by. It's now day number 24
of the seventh month. Not the first day,
not the 10th day. It's the 24th day. You think people will
be over it by now. They're not over it by now. They're still sensitive. They regather. They're still bothered by the
great sin of the past and even the present. Chapter 9, verse 1-- "On the 24th day of this month,
the children of Israel were assembled with fasting
in sackcloth"-- that's a sign of mourning--
"with dust on their heads," a sign of distress. "All those of Israelite
lineage separated themselves from all foreigners. And they stood and confessed
their sins and the iniquities of their father." "And they stood"-- verse 3--
"in their place and read from the Book of the Law of
the Lord, their God, for one-fourth of the day." There it is again,
this long Bible study. "And for another fourth,
they confessed and worshipped the Lord, their God." It wasn't like 40 minutes
go by, and they look at their sundials, make sure-- why is Ezra going so long? [LAUGHTER] Fourth of the day. Three hours they stood as
the Scripture was read. Three hours they confess
their sin and they pray and they worship. Then in chapter 9, Ezra prays,
a very long prayer, the longest prayer recorded in the Bible. I commend it to you. We don't have time
to look at it. But verse 6 through verse
38 is his lengthy prayer. Why a long prayer? Not to impress
people but to express to God his heartfelt
conviction, sorrow, and worship. And what's great
about this prayer is the prayer reflects
what Ezra has just read in the Law of the Lord. There are nuances of Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy in the prayer. There are also hints of
Joshua and Judges and Kings and Chronicles in the prayer. So it's based upon what has
been read and understood by the people. It reminds me of Jeremiah
chapter 15, verse 16. It was a verse that I was
reading to some of our worship team before the service. Jeremiah said, "Your words
were found, and I ate them. And they were to me the joy
and the rejoicing of my heart." I love it when people have such
a hunger for the word of God. It's like, oh, a meal. Read more. Do more. Speak more. "Your words were found. I ate them. They were to me the joy and
the rejoicing of my heart." I honestly-- not this church. This is a Bible church. I've been in some
churches in my travels where when I opened the Bible,
mine is the only Bible open. It's sad, isn't it? Mine was the only Bible open. It was more of a pep talk. It wasn't a Bible study. It was more of a rally. I could get that anywhere. I could go to an Elks
Club and get that. [LAUGHTER] Preacher, give me a Bible verse. Tell me thus sayeth the Lord. Ezra did. He brought revival. Chapter 10, there are 84
names, many of them difficult. I do not commend
exhaustive reading of it, though you should at least
read through it at least once in your life. It's a chapter that begins
with the name of Nehemiah. It includes the
names of priests, Levites leaders, those who
were touched by, affected by Ezra's sermon, his
public reading of the Law. And they are listed because
they commit to obey. Chapter 10, verse 29-- "These joined with their
brethren, their nobles, and entered into a
curse and an oath to walk in God's
Law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God." I commend to you to read
Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy 29. You'll get a flavor of
that curse and that oath. And it says, it continues,
"--to observe and to do all of the commandments
of the Lord, our God, and His ordinances
and His statutes." So after the rebuilding,
after the reviving comes the third phase, and that is
resettling a city's population. That's chapters 11 through 13. Now we have a massive
relocation program. Here's what I mean. There's a problem. They build this great city. There's a temple in it. There's walls around it. And there's gates hung. Here's the problem. Nobody's living inside of it. There are more people
living outside of the city than inside. So let's build a cool town,
but nobody wants to live in. Nehemiah sees this as a problem. So he gets the
outlying districts, the towns surrounding
Jerusalem where people are living,
to tithe people, to tithe people literally. Verse 1, chapter 11-- "Now the leaders of the
people dwell at Jerusalem." "Now the leaders of the
people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast
lots to bring 1 out of 10"-- that's a tithe-- "to dwell
in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to
dwell in other cities." Chapter 11 lists those
cities inside and outside-- or the families who are
inside the city and outside. Chapter 12 lists the
priests as well as the Levites who returned
from the captivity. Now the best part,
the closing part. Now comes the shindig. Now comes the hoedown,
the hootenanny, the party. Amen. It's time to party in Jerusalem. It's dedication day. And the emphasis is
on joyful praise. In this section, singing
is mentioned eight times, thanksgiving
mentioned six times, rejoicing mentioned seven
times, musical instruments three times. Chapter 12, verse 27-- "Now at the dedication
of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought out the Levites
in all their palaces to bring them to Jerusalem
to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with
thanksgiving and singing, with cymbals and stringed
instruments and harps." Verse 31-- "So I brought
the leaders of Judah up on the wall and appointed
two large thanksgiving choirs. One went to the right on the
wall toward the Refuse Gate." Go down to verse 38. "The other thanksgiving
choir went the opposite way, and I was behind them with
half of the people on the wall, going past the
Tower of the Ovens as far as the Broad Wall." Next time we're in
Jerusalem together, remind me of this verse. I want to show you the
wall that Nehemiah built. It's still there. They, the archaeologists,
have found a section of wall that extends throughout
the Jewish quarter. But they have exposed
just a small part of what they have
actually discovered underneath-- but
this small portion of this thick, huge, broad
wall built by Nehemiah. You can see, touch the Broad
Wall that Nehemiah built. So remind me next
time we're there. Verse 43-- "Also that day,
they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made
them rejoice with great joy. The women, the
children also rejoice, so that the joy of Jerusalem
was heard afar off." Notice how that's phrased. Not the singing was heard. The joy was heard. It was a palpable sense of joy. How do you sing when
you come to church? Well, I don't. [LAUGHTER] But I'm really good
at folding my arms and sitting like
a bump on the log and listening to others sing. Well, shame on you, man. Get into it. Get into it. Make a joyful noise. Sing. You've heard me preach
on this a lot of times. [APPLAUSE] Let people hear the joy down at
Starbucks, down at the corner, across the street. Just a quick note-- praise is almost always
linked to music in Scripture. You'll read that. You'll see that. Both instrumental and
vocal worship together. Martin Luther said a
lot of great things. One of my favorite
is, "Next to theology, I give to music the
highest place of honor." And he called music the
handmaiden of theology second only to theology. He also said this. It's my favorite quote,
perhaps, he's ever said. Well, not my favorite. But he said, "How does it happen
that in the secular field, there are so many fine poems
and so many beautiful songs, while in the religious
field we have such rotten, lifeless stuff?" Come on. Amen. And then he said, "If any
man despise his music, as all fanatics do, for
him, I have no liking, for music is a gift and grace
of God, not an invention of man. Thus it drives out the devil
and makes people cheerful. Then one forgets all wrath and
impurity and other devices," close quote. OK, walls are finished. Book is finished almost. You might think,
they built the walls. They lived happily ever after. Is that what happens? They live happily ever after? [LAUGHTER] Did they? They did not. Building a new structure
never guarantees a new heart. They built a cool temple,
and they built walls. Yet chapter 13, we're
not going to look at it, just going to mention it. Chapter 13, last chapter,
there are three problems. Problem number one, people
are not supporting the Levites financially. Problem number two, people are
breaking the Sabbath, carrying burdens on the Sabbath day. Problem number four,
they're marrying foreigners. So Nehemiah deals
head on with them. And every time he
deals with a problem, he closes out the resolution
with the phrase, "Remember me, O God. Remember me, O God. Remember me, O God." Verse 14, verse 22, verse 31-- "Remember me, O God." I'm going to deal with the
problem, but remember me, O God. I'm going to deal
with this problem. Help, God. I need your strength. Remember me. I'm doing this to
honor your name. That is the book of Nehemiah. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this book. Rebuild our hearts. Rebuild the walls,
Lord of protection. I know that we put
up walls sometimes, and we talk about that
in a negative sense, that we wall people out
that we should let in. But we should keep
out certain things. And there are
enemies who come in, and they don't want us to shore
up our spiritual defenses. They want us to walk in the
world and be of the world and be like the world. I pray, Lord, that we would
be in the world but not of it and that strong walls of
protection in our hearts, in our minds, in our eyes,
our ears would be present. In Jesus' name, amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit CalvaryNM.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
