Nehemiah 4:15-23
Let’s give our attention to God’s
word. Nehemiah chapter four, beginning at verse 15. This is
Nehemiah speaking, and he says, when our enemies heard that it
was known to us that God had frustrated their plan, we all
returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half
of my servants worked on construction and half held the spears, shields,
bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind
the whole house of Judah who were building on the wall. Those
who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored
on the work with one hand and held its weapon with the other.
And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side
while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet
was beside me, and I said to the nobles, to the officials,
and to the rest of the people, the work is great and widely
spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another,
in the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to
us there. Our God will fight for us. So
we labored at the work and half of them held the spears from
the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the
people at that time, let every man and his servant pass the
night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by
night and may labor by day. So neither I, nor my brothers,
nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me,
none of us took off our clothes. Each kept his weapon at his right
hand. Amen. The word of the living
God. I think most of you are familiar
with the name Elizabeth Elliot. She was the wife of the famous
missionary, Jim Elliot. He and his other companions were
trying to reach the Aka Indians in the jungles of Ecuador. And
I believe it was in January of 1956, they went into that village
or the edge of that village, having made some kind of contact
and the Indians ended up spearing them all to death. And Elizabeth
was a young bride, a young mother. She had just lost her husband.
They had just lost their four other associates. And there at
the jungle station in Ecuador with a 10-month-old baby, she
was paralyzed by overwhelming work, overwhelming tasks. And
she says in some of her memoirs, she had two choices. She could
either wallow in her misery or she could get busy doing what
God had put in front of her. And I suppose this old Saxon
poem was of interest to her. It goes like this. Do it immediately. Do it with prayer. Do it reliantly,
casting all care. Do it with reverence, tracing
his hand, who placed it before thee with earnest command. Stayed
on omnipotent, safe neath his wings, leave all resultings,
do the next thing. And that’s a wonderful little
phrase, catchphrase maybe, for us to think on when the times
of our lives get hard. We simply have to do the next
thing. And from time to time we can be overwhelmed, we can
become paralyzed with fear and with fatigue and with frustration
and with uncertainty. And I think something of that
was falling on the people of God at Jerusalem and Judea as
they were rebuilding the wall under Nehemiah’s leadership.
And as the enemies had begun to come from east and west and
from north and south, and they began to taunt and threaten the
people of God, so much so that everyone was pretty sure there
was an attack imminent. There was an attack that would
come and do them great harm. These were not military people. They had been living in Babylon
under wealth and ease in many respects. They were not trained
for war. And so there’s a sense where
we look at this passage, we look at the Israelites rebuilding
the temple, rebuilding the city, and now rebuilding their lives
and worship for God, and they need to do the next thing. Well,
as we look at the situation they’re in and how Nehemiah led them,
I think it’s important for us to remember that when the spiritual
going gets tough, The spiritually minded keep going. The spiritually
minded do the next thing. I’ve got three W’s for you tonight. Work, watch, and wait. Let’s think about work for a
moment. Verse 15 reminds us what’s been going on in this chapter.
We looked at a little bit of it last week, but they return
to the work on the wall. Each returned to his own work.
Remember, they’re building, they’re fixing, they’re repairing what’s
in front of their houses, what’s in front of their places of business.
Everyone has an interest in this project. And so each works and
repairs the wall that’s in front of their house. Verse 21 says,
we labored at the work. They’re doing the next thing.
They’re doing the task that is before them. which is to repair
the ruined city, to repair the ruined walls, to rebuild the
city of God for their safety, to rebuild the city of God for
their worship, but most importantly, I believe, to rebuild the city
wall for the witness that it bears to the watching world.
Our God is mighty to save. Well, half of the workforce,
well, they’re working. The other half of the workforce
is keeping watch, keeping guard. The ones keeping guard, they
have their shields, they have their chain mail, they have their
swords, their spears, their muskets. I didn’t say that, did I? The
others who are working, they have their sword and their trowel.
Some of you are familiar with Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the
great prince of preachers from London, the Baptist preacher
who filled the Metropolitan Tabernacle with many hearers week by week. And the newsletter, I believe,
that he put out was called The Sword and the Trowel. And 150
years ago when his ministry was front and center there, he was
well aware of the work of Satan, the work of enemies, the work
of people against the church of God. And he realized that
Christians needed to work with the sword in one hand and the
trowel in the other. We mix mortar and we build walls
with one hand, but with the other we protect the saints, the people
of God. Well, we come to understand in
our passage that the enemy has been frustrated. God, who holds
the hearts and the hands of every man, including our enemies, has
frustrated and the people of God are enlivened, they’re energized,
they’re on the move. and each went to his own work.
Each went to building and constructing and repairing and bearing burdens
and building and the city and its needs were great and the
people were widely spread around the city of Jerusalem. It was
still an overwhelming task, still lots of rubble. Remember, Nehemiah
gets this job done in about seven and a half weeks, 52 days it
takes. But from before dawn until after
sunset, while the stars are shining until the stars are shining again,
the people of God work. And isn’t that a sacrifice? We
live in a day and we live in a time where we expect others
to do it. Maybe some of you homekeepers
will tell us otherwise, right? The laundry needs to keep going.
If it gets behind, it backs up. You’ve got to run the dishwasher
every so often or the sink piles up. The trash needs to go out
or it begins to stink. diapers need changing, things
need to be done. And sometimes it just takes sacrifice. Sometimes there’s no putting
our feet up, there’s no ease. And it’s that way sometimes in
the life of the church. It just rolls and we deal with
the work as it comes. But bless the Lord that he gives
strength. Praise the Lord that he is the
God of heaven who makes Israel prosper and he can make us prosper. If we’re going to toil for the
king of kings, if we’re going to do church work, if we’re going
to do kingdom work in our families, sometimes the ordinary mundane
everyday task may get old and may become difficult or tiresome
to us, but we just press on. Sword in one hand, and trowel
and the other. We work, we pray, we fight, and
we serve. So those are some of the things
that the people of God were doing as they worked. Now let’s think
about the next word, watch. Remember when things get tough
spiritually, those who are spiritually minded, they keep going, they
do the next thing. And our passage tells us they
watched. Remember sand ballot. And Tobiah,
they were the taunters. They were the enemies, the chief
of the enemies. And they had plotted against
Israel, plotted against the people. They had come and said, you know,
look at this little project you’re building, this little wall. Even
if a fox were to climb on this wall, it would fall over. And
they’ve promised a surprise attack. They’ve promised an ambush. But
verse one tells us when our enemies heard that it was known to us,
suppose about the ambush and that God had frustrated their
plan. We all returned to the work, each of us to our own place,
our own work. And can’t you imagine how angry
these enemies are? Can’t you imagine how many times
they have been frustrated? They’ve been for Oh, a long time
now, decades, been trying to frustrate the work of the people
in rebuilding the city of God. They don’t want people to follow
Yahweh. They don’t want people to live
the law. They don’t want people to shine brightly as God’s stars
on this earth. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Let’s let’s shut the Christians up. Let’s let’s let every worldview
be up for discussion in the public arena, except Christians. If
Christians speak, let’s shut them down. If Christians speak,
let’s call them bigots. If Christians speak, let’s do
whatever we can to frustrate their building of the kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to be reminded of
Peter’s encouragement to Christians. First Peter 5, 8 says, Be sober
minded. Wouldn’t you be so reminded if
you had a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other? Now, when I come to work, when
I do my job, I don’t have to carry a sword. Well, at least
not anymore. Maybe a few years ago I had to. That’s a joke. It was rough from time to time,
but I get to do my job pretty freely. Now, Satan, yes, can
frustrate it and it can be difficult. But we’re not very often sober
minded, are we? But if you have work in front
of you and you’re keeping an eye out for the enemy and so
much so that you’re actually carrying a sidearm while you’re
doing kingdom work, you will naturally be sober minded. So
I think it’s an encouragement to us that Peter gives us this
command, be sober minded. We probably need to put that
into practice, don’t we? It’s one of the qualifications
for elder. It’s one of the qualifications
for deacon. It’s one of the qualifications for minister. We ought to be,
even as Christians, sober minded, be mindful of what’s true, what
the real threats are, what’s going on in this world. Just
a couple of weeks ago, I read an article for the paper about
the enemy of the smartphone. And so I wanted to do some up-to-date
research on that subject. And I read through both Christians
and non-Christians’ view of what technology and the smartphone
has done for us. And Christians are generally
pretty wary of things that can hurt us. It’s mostly the content.
You know, we don’t want to watch dirty movies. We don’t want to,
you know, we don’t want our children influenced by Britney Spears
or somebody like that. So we get all that from the Christian
community. But what was alarming to me is
that people who developed apps, people who developed the gadget,
the smartphone, people who developed things like the like button for
Facebook, they were sounding the alarm much louder than the
Christian writers I read. Not to say anything against the
Christian writers, but I think some of these developers understood
they knew what was behind the method and the motive of these
technological advances, as we might call them. And perhaps
as Christians, we ought to be more sober-minded than ever of
the world we live in, the pressures it puts on us, and the temptations
that it brings us. I think we’re used to just letting
things wash over us. I think of Ted Danson, the actor,
several years ago, probably 30 years ago, was on a television
show, and I can’t remember the name of it, but I can remember
this most memorable quote. He said, the television is the
Petri dish where America grows its idiots. You see why that’s
memorable. And what do you think now about
the smartphone? I mean, you go anywhere and everywhere and it’s
in the face. We’re looking, we’re swiping,
we’re antisocial now to such a degree. And I think there’s
a need to be sober minded, not just with what’s going on in
the culture around us, but with how things are affecting our
minds and hearts. Be sober minded, Peter says,
be watchful. These people on the wall were
watchful, watchful for Sanballat and Tobiah and for Satan and
for their enemies. And Peter goes on to say, your
adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. He is looking
for somebody to eat for lunch. Peter is saying, don’t let it
be you. And so half the workforce is on guard. Half the workforce
is watching. The other half have their weapons
on them. They’re working. I suppose they’re watching a
little. But it was very important for Nehemiah to say, there’s
some low points in the wall. There are some breaches that
aren’t yet filled. Someone, perhaps, could storm
that gate, as it were, that open breach, and enter our city. The gates have not yet been set.
So I think it’s good for us as we’re watchful, as we’re sober-minded,
realize where we’re vulnerable. When you get tired, when you
get weary, when it’s just easy to watch TV, it’s easy just to
stare at the smartphone, or you say, you know what, I’ve been
looking at this stuff for so long, it doesn’t affect me. We
can become so infected by the ways of the world and all that
it offers us. We can become so mindless and
so brainless that we’re really not watching. What we’re doing
is taking a pagan lifestyle and shaking a little Jesus on it,
right? And it’s not to be that way. Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary prowls around
like a roaring lion. It’s not just ourselves we’re
to watch, we’re to look out for each other. And so in the low
points, maybe where culture has entered the church, maybe where
the church has let her guard down, or we don’t have a gate
up, to protect that particular place in the church. We ought
to give our attention. Well, they were there in these
gaps with their swords and with their spears and their shields
and their bows and their coats of mail. I was thinking about
that. That kind of sounds like Knights of the Round Table, doesn’t
it? But I guess they had coats of mail back then as well. And
when the trumpet would blow, Nehemiah had a trumpeter with
him, and when the trumpet would blow, they were all to rush to
the sound of the trumpet and protect that portion of the city. Be watchful. Be armed. Don’t sleep. Be ready. It’s interesting. They have a night guard. It’s
interesting. They have people pulling double
duty. We should be aware, we should
be disciplined, we should be ready for everything in the Christian
life that comes our way. So Nehemiah is walking around,
he’s encouraging, he’s commending, he’s overseeing and he’s setting
the example. You’ll notice in verse 23, it
says, neither I nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men
of the guard who followed me. None of us took off our clothes.
Each kept his weapon at his right hand. This is a soldier sleeping,
uh, dressed for battle. These, these are minute men,
aren’t they? Like from the revolutionary period, they are ready and setting
the example. They are prepared to meet the
enemies of God, those who would sabotage the city and sabotage
the work of God. And perhaps each of you knows
this well. Our enemies as Christians are
the world and its influences. Our enemy is the devil who seeks
to destroy the people of God. And our enemy is our own remaining
sin or called the flesh. As Paul says in the scriptures,
And we need to be sober minded that the enemy, Satan, the enemy,
the world and the enemy within the flesh, uh, seek to undermine
our work in our labor, even our own personal growth and grace
in the kingdom. And so we need to watch out.
We need to eat our Wheaties. As we might say, we need to be
in church. We need to be in the word and under the word. And
we need to always be ready to give an account of the hope that
is in us to encourage others, but to fight in that. comes sometimes in the area of
false teachers. They slip in the church. Sometimes
that comes when we dumb down our doctrine because we think
people don’t like doctrine, doctrine divides, or we get lazy. And
I think there’s an example in this for the elders of the church. Nehemiah walked around, he inspected,
he encouraged, but he also would sound the alarm if there was
danger. Sometimes the people who are
working are busy. or their heads down in the mortar,
in the mud of wall building. And so I think Nehemiah sets
a great example here for church leaders. We protect the people,
we sound the trumpet, and we watch over the flock of God. Well, there’s another W, it’s
the last one, and it’s the word wait. So work, watch, wait. Going spiritually gets tough. The spiritually minded, the spiritually
tough. They do the next thing. They
keep going. And part of that is waiting. We’ve been watching
for the enemy, so we wait for the enemy if he comes. We rely
on the Lord to help us win the battle. We hope and expect in
God who is our strength. We remember that we are weak.
We are finite. We are but flesh and blood and
our enemies aren’t flesh and blood. No, they’re the powers.
And they’re the principalities of this present evil age, this
present darkness. And so we need an infinite helper. We need the captain of our salvation.
We need Jesus, the captain of the Lord’s army and all his promises,
his track record. and his active work on our behalf
to win these sorts of battles. And so we wait on the Lord. We
wait and rest in his strength. For this is the God who’s moved
in the hearts of kings like Cyrus and Darius and Ahasuerus and
others. And he’s moved in their hearts.
He’s granted Israel success through all the leaders that have brought
them back in ages. in stages and in projects with
the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He’s frustrated the plans of
enemies. He’s made Israel to prosper. And verse 20 is a great
reminder for all of us. Nehemiah says, when the trumpet
sounds, the enemy is making a breach. Our God will fight for us. That’s the waiting, isn’t it?
We can wring our hands all we want about this culture we live
in. cancel culture and the Marxism that’s popped up so quickly,
the hatred that we feel, the division that we experience.
And as the people of God, we need to keep doing what’s in
front of us. Keep preaching the gospel. keep making disciples,
keep doing the biblically commanded church work, waiting on the Lord,
not forgetting, not being faithless, not being fearful, but trusting
in the God who sits in the heavens and he laughs at those who conspire
against him. He restrains all his and all
our enemies. and he conquers them and he puts
them under his feet. He rules them with his foot on
their neck. And so our God and all that he
is is ours to believe in, to hope in, to trust in, to put
our faith in. He is great and he is awesome. And so when the going gets tough
for God’s people, the spiritually minded, the spiritually tough
keep going, they do the next thing. You know, the circumstances
of the Israelites here couldn’t have been probably much worse. Their city was lying in ruins. The work was overwhelming. The
task was becoming more and more difficult. And it was on about
100 years now that they were working. And so they had to adapt. They had to guard. They had to
be minute men. They had to encourage one another. The enemy was becoming more bold
and more active. But as they worked and as they
watched and as they waited, God was blessing them. And that’s
the nature of serving Christ in the church and in the world
and in the home. Our achievements will come through
adversity. Our achievements in the home,
in the church, and in the world will come through adversity.
And so if you are a church leader, a parent, a grandparent. Maybe
you expect someday to have children. You’re working in the world trying
to be faithful. Yes, you’ll have obstacles. There will be rubble.
There will be Satan and world and flesh and fear and fatigue
and frustration. But if you sacrifice, if you
serve and you persevere, God promises an outcome. It may not
be rosy in this life, but it will be in the next. And I think
we should take encouragement from Nehemiah’s committed belief,
his committed faith in the mission of God’s church, the city of
God needed to be. On the face of the earth to represent
his goodness and his glory and a tired and despondent group,
he leads and he transforms them by God’s grace to build this
city, and so I want to encourage you as you were summoned by God
to fight the good fight. to press on in the Christian
faith. When the going gets tough, do
the next thing. You can always pray. You can
always read. You can always sigh and groan
and God hears those and they rise up to heaven and he interprets
them and you can always fix your eyes on God and you can watch
him work and do mighty things for his people. Let’s do pray
together. Lord, bless us as we think on your strength for the
battle, your strength for the task. Lord, we do get weary. Our knees get weak. Our shoulders
droop. Our eyes get heavy, our hearts get burdened, and it’s
hard to be a Christian in this world. We get faint hearted.
We want to lose heart. We want to hole up and cocoon
ourselves out of the fray. But that’s not what your son
did, and that’s not what you call us to do. So help us, give
us your strength and blessing to live the Christian life faithfully,
remembering that when the going gets tough, the spiritually minded
do the next thing. Give us your help and blessing,
we pray in Christ’s name, amen. We want to respond to God’s goodness
and sing together, Soldiers of Christ Arise. So make your way
to 540 and we’ll stand to sing.