We'll ask you this morning to turn to Nehemiah chapter 6. Perhaps this morning you would have expected to perhaps turn to one of the Gospels. This is Christmas as we celebrate Christmas and we had our event this Wednesday, a wonderful event where we sang and celebrated the Lord's coming. This morning we will return to Nehemiah in our sequential reading and expository preaching of this incredible book. But Christ is in all the scriptures, is he not? And so this may not be termed what we would call a Christmas sermon per se, but if you pay attention, Christ is here. Well, let me read Nehemiah 6. 15 through chapter 7, verse 4. So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul, in 52 days. 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. For they perceived that this work was done by our God, Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shekiniah, the son of Arah. And his son, Jehohanan, had married the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Berechiah. Also, they reported his good deeds before me and reported my words to him. Tobias sent letters to frighten me. Then it was when the wall was built and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother, Hanani. and Hananiah, the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. And I said to them, do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they stand guard, let them shut and bar the doors and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house. Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt. Amen. Let us go before the Lord once more. Lord, we ask your help this morning. Help us, Lord, to glorify you properly. Lord, this is your word, your perfect word. Teach us, challenge us, encourage us. We do pray. Help us. Amen. Well, I would ask you this morning to think for a second about a large, very complicated project. Perhaps that large, complicated project is a building. You may think of a city and a large building as it's being constructed. Perhaps an interstate system. We have an example of this on Interstate 81, and we look at the work that's being done, and I wonder which decade will that be finished in? Or perhaps a little closer to home, you look at that puzzle on your table, that puzzle that you began in earnest six months ago, and it still sits there. And you wonder yourself, will I complete that in the next five years or not? Maybe something a little more specific this morning. Think of the Brooklyn Bridge. Some of you perhaps have seen that monument to man's ingenuity. The Brooklyn Bridge took 14 years to complete. It cost $15 million. Now, in current exchange, that would be $320 million. Over 24 people died in the process. of building that bridge. When it was all completed, they had, as you might imagine, a very large ceremony. The president of the time, Chester A. Arthur, and the New York governor, Grover Cleveland, who would be a president, was there. A large celebration for a massive project and completion. My friends, I would suggest this morning that the project that we see here completed was even more massive, was even more important. This completion of the wall. Return again to verse 15. I have divided the text this morning into four sections, the first of which is titled this, Victorious Completion. And we will spend most of our time this morning thinking about what has happened here. Verse 15, So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. And it happened when all of our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God. Now, what are we to understand by this completion of the wall? Of course, we could think in redemptive historical terms. The reason for the completion of this wall was so that this nation, Israel, and this remarkable city, as we've talked about the city of Jerusalem and how much importance this city has had and will have. We could think about that in redemptive historical terms. Of course, the Messiah would come. He would not be born here, but he would spend much time here. He would suffer here. He would be crucified outside the city gates. And in redemptive historical terms, all of that is very important. And it is true. The city was complete partially for those very reasons. And then, of course, looking into the future, there will be a new Jerusalem. And in that new Jerusalem, there will be no gates. The doors will be open. There's no need for these structures, this wall, these gates. We can think in those terms. But also this morning, there are lessons for us to learn from this text. And we see here that the wall was complete. And note this. There was no pomp. There was no circumstance. It seems to point to the sober reality that even though the wall was complete, they knew that their threats, the continual threats that they had, it was not over. The wall, as the scriptures tell us here, they were completed in the month of Elul. That is September, roughly speaking. 52 days. Now, some commentators They don't understand how this wall could have been built in 52 days. But there's no need to worry about that. In fact, we don't even know the reference for 52 days. Was this a reference from the beginning? Was this a reference from when Tobiah really began the persecution? The point being, the Scriptures say it was completed in 52 days, and it was completed in those 52 days. In fact, if we think about it in context of what we see presented this morning, that is part of the whole surprise for the enemies of God, that it was built quickly and successfully. There's a lot of symbolism though here in the completion of the wall, and I want to spend some time this morning considering these things before us as we think about this wall being built and this victorious day. And so as we think about this wall being built, I believe there's two symbolic demonstrations that the Lord has given us here. First of which is this. The completed wall is a symbol of the victory of the people of God over evil. God's people. Who are God's people? God's people are simple people. God's people are small in number. God's people are not great in status or standing. And here were people, God's people, that came and built the wall. They contributed all they had to the Lord. As Francis Schaeffer said, in the Lord's economy there are no little people. All people are big in His eyes as He uses His people to accomplish great things. The people of God then worked hard. stone by stone, bloodied hands, sore backs, exhausted bodies. Many of you know this feeling, do you not? Where you worked so hard, day after day, and you come home for a little rest, and even sitting in that nice, lazy boy, cushy chair, it hurts. No doubt, this is how many of them felt. These were sacrificial pains, but they gave their lives and they gave their body for the effort. But not only that, not only that, they were opposed the whole time. We have talked much and we preach much on this opposition. They were ridiculed. They were oppressed. They were taken advantage of. Now, if you can imagine this scenario, Many of you have big projects that you are taking care of, or many of you have worked on large projects. And let's just say, for example, as you're working on one of those really large projects, I hire somebody to come to your home. And as they come to your home, this is what I tell them to do, heckle you, sabotage you, discourage you. And so you're working on that project and there's somebody constantly in your ear. Why are you doing that? That doesn't look good. Oh, I could do better than that. Well, this is what they had to deal with, not only their own aches and pains and difficulties. They had the opposition from the people around them. They had pressure. Look at verse 16. All of that included, the Jews were encouraged. They were encouraged, verse 16, for they, and we're going to spend much time on this verse here, verse 16. But look in context, for they, that is the enemies, perceived that this work was done by our God. But there's many angles you can look at here. Not only did the enemies perceive that, but the Jews themselves perceived that. This was encouraging. Think of rock by rock as they were building the wall. One by one, they saw the wall as it was being repaired and built. Every single stone that was laid was an encouragement. And then here at this point, the wall, built. What an encouragement. God is with them. God is in their midst. I think about William Carey, that Baptist missionary from the 1700s. William Carey went to India, as many of you are aware, and He had so many difficulties. If you've never read his biography, I strongly suggest it. It will encourage you. But he went through many years of discouragement as he arrived in difficulty after difficulty, moving from one place to another. And then the people, the people who were adamantly against the Christian message. There were businessmen in the city that didn't want the Christian message either because it hurt their business. So many difficulties. And all of that, it took seven years, seven years of his efforts before the first convert. But can you imagine the joy in William Carey's heart when in front of him was this Indian, Krishna Paul, who had bowed the knee to Christ and was baptized. What encouragement. And here the wall is built. Think of the people. What encouragement that was. My brothers and sisters, what what will it take for us? to go to Costa Rica? What will it take for us to go to Thailand, to go downtown Stanton and to proclaim the gospel of Christ? What will it take year after year after year of labor? How can we sustain that? How can we do that? Brothers and sisters, it's not something that we have innately in us. It is not by our own skill and effort. Here's why we keep doing that, because we know that Christ is in our midst. And they knew when that wall was built and it was completed, that God was in their midst. My friends, is God in our midst? If God is in our midst, we can do those things and we can press forward and press on to greater things in the Lord because we know that He is with us. Isaiah 41, 13, For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not, I will help you. We sang just moments ago, Zephaniah 317, that scripture song, and it's hard to say it without singing it. The Lord our God is in the midst of thee. He is mighty. He is mighty. Is he in the midst of us? Because if he is in the midst of us, he is in the midst of us. But if he is, we can do all things through Christ and we can press on and we can press forward. So point number one there, This building of the wall, the completion of the wall, represented victory to the Jews. They were victorious. Number two, it represented a defeat for the enemies of God. Now, I know those two go hand in hand. You've got a victory on one side, you've got a defeat on the other, of course. But this was a strong representation of the defeat of the enemies of God. It was a continual reminder. Think about as they walked by that wall, as it was being built stone by stone, ridicule by ridicule. They heard the chills. They heard all of the sounds of building walls. And there were people there that were building. They were smashing their hands and they were yelling out all of that. And they were ridiculing the whole process, opposed to it. And then that wall was built. How could have this happened? How is the wall built after all that we have done? Attack upon attack. There were attacks on Nehemiah's life. There were attacks on his courage, on his integrity. There were attacks on his belief in God. But at the end of it, both Nehemiah stood and there was the wall completed. Look again at the text. 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. Here was the wall. They could examine it. They heard of it. You can imagine there was no social media in the day, but they heard of it just like a rumor on social media. They saw it with their own eyes. Here was the wall. They could examine it. Not only was it built, but it was quality. A fox could run across it and it didn't fall down. How did this happen? So for just a moment, let's examine their response. Now the enemies of God were afraid. They were dumbfounded. Their strategies, which they thought were foolproof, did not work. The text tells us that they were disheartened. In the Hebrew, that means their countenance failed. They were discouraged. They saw themselves as little. Their pride, it sunk low. Their haughty estate took a hit. Why? It's obvious. There was the wall. And the wall was completed. Look at this statement, which is incredible and remarkable. For they, the enemies, perceived that this work was done by our God. How did they perceive it? We're not quite certain. But that they perceived it is what the scriptures tell us. What did they perceive? Here's what they perceived. This work, though it was done by hands, though it was done by people, this work to them could not have been explained if it weren't for God. It could not be explained only by human effort. It was not that Nehemiah had something special. It was not that the people had something special. They could not explain it in human terms. If they could, they would have explained it in human terms. They could not. And yet the irony, it was completed by God's people. Now think about that for just a moment. The people of God. doing what God has called them to do. Day after day. Is it hard? Yes. Is there opposition? Yes. Is it painful? Yes. But doing the work that the Lord has called the people of God to do day after day. And at the end of it all, the enemies of God looked at the people and looked at the wall and they said, God did this. This was a work of God, and they could not deny it. Look at Nehemiah 6, verse 9. Go back a few verses. Look at the continuation here as we see it before us. Nehemiah 6, verse 9. For they all were trying... That's the enemies of God. For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, Their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done. Now, therefore, O God, here's the prayer of Nehemiah. Therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. And the Lord answered his prayer. All of the fear mongering. All of the hate. All of the persecution. The Lord hears the prayer of Nehemiah. Look at 6, verse 14. Another prayer. Notice the reversal. They spent all of that time trying to make Nehemiah and the people of God afraid. Why? Because if they could make them afraid, they would stop the work and they would tremble. But look, my friends, at who is trembling now. The wall is built. And now the enemies of God are the ones who are trembling. The fear-inducers are now the fearful. They were very disheartened in their own eyes. My friends, there's a message there for us. There's always a message for us. And there could be many messages for us here, but at least this one. When God is in our midst, When we are pressing forward in God's strength, when we are ministering to others in the name of Christ, though we may not even be able to perceive it, others, non-believers, they look on our life and they'll say this, only God can explain that. Only God can explain it. Is that what you want? I have no greater desire than that for my life. I'm nothing special. You're nothing special either. The Lord uses people like ourselves for his glory. At the end of my life, I hope they simply say, Pastor Andrew, He was nothing special, but only God can explain that life. Only God can explain it. Non-believers understand this. They perceive this. We think about Romans 1.20. We think about that whole creation as that creation is a witness to all people. And as that creation, those wonderful things that God has created as a witness to all people, they know that and they perceive it. They look at the insects, they look at the birds, they look at the plants, they look at ourselves, humans, and though they may scoff at that and think, well, this is a product of evolution, they know in their hearts and minds that only God can explain this. Press on, my brothers, press on. Those fear tactics, the insults, the persecutions, the Lord knows, the Lord knows. And all of those, the enemies of God, on the day of judgment, they will have to account for every single case of fear mongering that they placed on the people of God. Pray for them, pray for them. Now with all of that said, there's some other lessons here that we need to take with us. Lesson number one, God uses insignificant people and insignificant means to make His name great. 1 Corinthians 1, 26, brothers and sisters, Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Again, none of us in this building are anything special. I don't think that's news for you. Nehemiah wasn't special either. And Nehemiah knew that. Look at verse 15. This was Nehemiah's chance. If Nehemiah ever had a chance to brag about himself, here it was. The wall was complete. He could have said, well, you know why the wall is complete, right? Because I've got a plan. Right? I know how to do this. I'm a construction expert. This is why the wall is complete. They followed my plan. I'm powerful. I'm mighty. They did what I asked them to do. You see none of that from Nehemiah. In fact, you see the humility of Christ in the man. He said nothing about himself. In fact, it's very melodramatic. The wall is complete. And that's all you hear. You know this about your pastors. I don't have to tell you. Your pastors are nothing special either. Luke, Greg, myself, nothing special about us. We are simply individuals that the Lord has given a passion to preach His gospel and to pastor His people. We are nothing special. But our prayer is simply this. I pray that the Lord's power would be so evident upon the three of us that though people walk out of this building after a sermon and they say, there's nothing special about any of those pastors, they will say this, the Lord was powerful in that message. We met the Lord that day. My friends, keep working. Keep pushing. I know these are menial tasks and you come here often and you teach and you prepare. You love one another the best you can. You wake up the next morning and you do the same things. Sometimes it just seems like menial task after menial task. You pray. You pray earnestly for those that yet to have bowed the knee to Christ. You do it day after day. Keep doing it. If nobody recognizes it on earth, that's okay. The Lord knows. And the Lord uses men and women who go to the wall and chisel rocks daily for His glory. Keep chiseling those rocks. Keep praying. Lesson two, God's work amongst His people, the church, causes unbelievers to tremble. The fear of God for the enemies was palpable. When the church of God remains true to their Savior and the Word of God, the world trembles. Can you imagine that scene again? The enemies of God as they pass the wall, as they watch the work being done, as they criticize it, But day after day, they were back at it again. Again, for this church, let us be that church. We may receive criticism, but each day, let us be back at it again. God's work amongst the enemies was evident. Is it evident amongst ourselves? Is God in the midst of us? When the church grows, and I don't mean just numerically, but when the church grows and is sanctified, when lives are changed, when there are salvations in the church, when there are baptisms, when Christ's name and his fame are extended, that's a sign of God, Christ being in the midst. I would say, my friends, Christ is in our midst. Emmanuel, God with us. Christ is in our midst. So brothers, once more, when there are individuals being saved here, when we send out abroad and plant churches, when we advance the gospel here in Stanton and neighboring communities, when our own members increase in holiness. These are signs of Christ in our midst. But let the lesson be clear. We are not to brag about our ingenuity, our effort, our strength. All credit goes to God. alone. Let us praise God for His efforts, His work amongst us. God will gain the victory. Again, the enemies of God. All of the efforts, all of the persecution all of the ridicule, all of the criticism, and here the wall was built. My friends, that was a sign to them of the ultimate victory in Christ. Let these victories amongst us be signs of the ultimate victory in Christ, Christ victorious over the grave. There will be that moment, as we've been learning in Revelation, Christ returns and every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Christ is victorious. So my friends, these little victories that we see, let us remember, those are small glimpses of the ultimate victory in Christ. The victory is ours in Christ, in Christ alone. These next few sections I will try to pass a little bit more fervently. As we see from our text, what happens, the wall is built, but the battle is not over. When God gives the victory, the battle continues. And we see this, look at verse 17. This is what I will call the smear campaign. When God is evident in a community of believers, smear is near. Count on it. And we see that here, verse 17, also in those days the nobles of Judah, who were up to all sorts of mischief, sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shekeniah the son of Arrah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshulam the son of Berechiah. Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him." And note this, Tobiah sent letters to frighten me. Who is this Tobiah? We have mentioned him several times and I will just sum it up by a quick quote from Gil. Because he, that is Tobiah, was the son-in-law of Shekeniah, the son of Erah, of a family that came up with Zerubbabel. That was in Ezra 2.5. And his son Jehohannan had taken the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, a very eminent person concerned in the building of the wall. What does that mean? It tells us that Tobiah was in the high society. He had a lot of friends, he had a lot of family, he had a lot of popularity, he had a lot of business dealings and money talks, and because of that, note the term, many were bound to him by an oath. Maybe they were in debt to him as well, we don't know. But here was a man, and likely he was Jewish, Very likely. But here was a man that sold his birthright. What was he caring about? Popularity, money, business dealings. He did not want the wall built. That would have been bad for his pocket. And so here, Tobiah brings again wrath upon this project, a smear campaign against Nehemiah, undercutting, undermining attacks. Now we see from the text here, there's letters, all sorts of letters that are being passed. We don't know the content of the letters. In simplistic terms, we can guess the content. of the letters. And again, I think what we're looking at here was a smear campaign elevating Tobiah. In fact, we see that. They spoke good words of Tobiah in verse 19. They were propping Tobiah up. Look at this man. He's a good man. Look what he's doing. But all the while, he was spreading fear amongst the people against Nehemiah and the project. This was, again, maybe we say last efforts here, but for Tobiah, this is just one more case of intimidation. Intimidating the people of God. Some of you have felt this intimidation, have you not? Some of you in your job sites as you are there working and many know that you're Christians and you've made it plain that you're a Christian And you receive intimidation. People talking behind your back. You know, that person as you're coming down the hall, and as you see them coming, you look at them, but they put their head down right before they pass by and they say nothing. Intimidation. Persecution. What's in this letter, these letters? We don't know. We don't know. But they constantly are are talking about how Nehemiah and this task and this wall is contrary to what they believe in, is contrary to their own efforts and their own passions. And so there's intimidation. There's a smear campaign. My friends, what if that happens to this church? A smear campaign. What if they accuse your pastors of all sorts of horrible things? Not true, but accusing falsely. In the news, they're talking about Emmanuel Baptist Church and all of the things that are happening there with their pastors and on and on we go, a smear campaign. What's your response? Will you show up the next Lord's Day? If there's video cameras outside as you show up, will you still walk into the building? Those Jews that were working on the wall, they had a similar question. Here's Nehemiah leading the efforts, a leader amongst the people, a smear campaign against him. All sorts of horrible things said. Will they show up the next day and put another rock into the wall? Or will they walk away and say, I'm done with this? I don't want my name to be associated with that effort. My friends, we've got decisions to make here too. And I put that before you this morning just for your consideration. Will we stand on God's Word no matter what? Will we continue the work of God no matter what? Even if there's a smear campaign put against us. Point three. Holy delegation. Though the battle continues, and it will continue, here Nehemiah sets before the people leaders He leads faithful leaders. He delegates responsible, faithful individuals to lead the people amongst the constant battle before them. Look at chapter 7 verse 1 once more. Then it was when the wall was built, and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many." My friends, when there is a smear campaign, what do you do? Here's what you do. You do exactly what Nehemiah did. You double down on the mission that God gave you. Built the wall. Completed. But are you done? Do you just celebrate? Look, the wall is done! No. There's still conflict. There's still battles to be waged. And Nehemiah puts, again, faithful men in front of the efforts from this point forward. He puts guards, gatekeepers that are likely at the temple. He puts guards in front of the city gates. Singers. Notice that. All worshiping people were involved. all hands on deck. He divided the burden amongst the people. We say perhaps he's applying Jethro's advice to Moses here. As we think about what happened in Exodus 18, verse 20, it says this, And you shall teach them, this is Jethro to Moses, and you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work which they must do. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens." Delegation. Who are these men? Hanani, Hananiah. Well, Hananiah likely was his own blood brother, as we see from the text. Hananiah was a governor of some sort of the citadel, perhaps, the point being Nehemiah desired true, faithful leaders. And these were leaders that he had confidence in. 2 Timothy 2.2, we know this in New Testament context, do we not? What are churches to do? What are we to do when we look for leaders of this church? Paul says this, Faithful men. These were trustworthy men. These were reverent. They were faithful. They were God-fearing. Notice how this is worded here. This is very important for us. Now, we don't know if that was speaking of Hananiah or Hananiah. We don't know. But it was true of both of them. The text does not make it clear which individual, though we might assume it's Hananiah. But the point again is, he, either of those two, they were faithful men and feared God, notice this, more than many. All Christians. And here, all Christian men, in context, should be considered faithful in God-fearing. All. But notice, there are some that exhibit that more than others. More than others. How do you recognize that? How do you know if this is a man? I mean, the men of the church that are faithful and God-fearing, they're everywhere. How do you know which ones are more than many? Direct observation. You have to see it. You have to experience it. You have to know it. If somebody comes in this church and says, I would like to be a pastor, here's my resume, and on the resume it says, I'm a faithful man, I'm a God-fearing man. We say, okay, come on in, you can be a pastor. No, it doesn't work that way. We test them. Anybody can say they're God-fearing, they're faithful. Are they really? Are they faithful and God-fearing amongst many? Above many? See, this is pointing to Nehemiah's vetting process. He knew those men and he knew they were faithful. And he knew they were God-fearing. My friends, even in the future, unless the Lord does something, I'm not going anywhere, sorry. But there is a future. And in the future, when you again look for men to lead this church, look for faithful, God-fearing men. You do not need a popular preacher. If you're looking for a popular preacher, we're not them. But I praise and I thank the Lord. Hopefully He has made us faithful men. Pray for us. That's all we want is to be faithful, God-fearing men. Lastly, there's diligent watching. Consistent battle demands good leadership, but also demands consistent vigilance. Look again at the text, chapter 7, verse 3. Diligent watching. These now are practical measures that Nehemiah puts before his people. Verse 3, And I said to them, Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they stand guard, let them shut and bar the doors, and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house. Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt. This, my friends, is Wah's leadership. Do not open the gates until the sun is hot. So is the command for us, if you've got a gate at your house, leave it shut until it's really hot? Of course not. What's the message here for us? What was the message for them? By the way, this was not normal in a sense. They typically would open the gates as soon as the sun rose. And again, at sunset, when the sun went down, they would close the gates. So this is something a little bit different. Do not open the gates until the sun is hot. Again, we would presume when the sun is at its fullest height, when it's hot. Why? Why wait? It gave the people of God their mornings and their evenings. For what? For worship. for worship, where they had no fears at all, and they had plenty of time. If there was a secret attack that was happening outside the gates, they could discover it before they opened the gates. Likewise, they shut and barred the doors before they left. They never left any doors unmanned. Protection of the city. There were times when safety, our own safety, others, their safety is at risk and those moments here for Nehemiah when the safety of the city was most at risk, he told them, bar the doors, shut the gates. You are the people of God. Focus and don't miss this. There is a worship component here. Focus on the worship of God. They watched their stations. their own house. Why their own house? My friends, do you protect your own house with a greater vigilance than the city of Stanton? Of course. When the sun goes down, if you're like me, you probably head toward that door and lock it. Not because you expect somebody to come in or whatever, but practicality. protecting the people inside because they are loved ones. You care for them. This is what's going on here, again, with a worship focus, protecting safety and godliness. My friends, as we conclude here, just thinking in broad terms. Do people want to enter our gates? break down our walls, wreak havoc in your own life, in the life of the church? The answer to that is yes. Any of you received an email recently? It says something along these lines, we were unable to deliver your package. All you have to do is send us your credit card number. We'll match it with the credit card number on the order, and before long, the delivery driver will be at your front door. People penetrating the gates. It's all around us, especially this time of year. It's all around us. Spiritually speaking, though, that's what we need to consider, spiritually. My friends, to be brutally honest, There are many of us in this room today that are not closing our gates and barring our doors like we should. We're letting all sorts of things in through our phones and television, internet, social media and entertainment. Our gates are wide open. Shut them. Are you monitoring your gates? Parents, you have to do this for your children. You have to teach them how to do this. You have to teach them how to shut the doors, bar the doors, monitor the gates. They don't know how to do that. Teach them. And later in life, they understand the dangers. Sometimes the gates have to be open, do they not? And at those times that the gates are open, we must be on our vigilance. Be alert for the schemes of the devil. We know that he's prowling around. When we were in Portugal, Susan and I had a little system. Here's the system. Sometimes in Portugal, believe it or not, if you've ever been to Western Europe, you probably know this, sometimes women were very scantily dressed. even on billboards. And so we came up with a little code word. And if Susan said that code word, I knew something. This is what I do. Here's my response to the code word. Look down, don't look up. What was she helping me do? Guard my gates. We need to help each other do the same. Help your brothers Help your sisters shut the doors, bar the gates. Help them. We love each other. Bolt the doors when we need to. In final conclusion, what's the message today? The Lord, our God, is in our midst. As the Lord was in the midst of those that built the wall, as He helped those who built the wall, we pray, I'm asking you, pray more earnestly that this new calendar year, 2025, that the Lord would be ever more present amongst us, and even for those on the outside that are scoffers, that they would recognize one thing about this church at Emmanuel. God is in their midst. God is in their midst. God is working amongst them. But do we get prideful about that? No, it's God's work. And graciously, He has allowed us to be a part of that. But know, wherever God is working in the midst, there will be a smear campaign. Know that. Expect it. Expect it. The enemies of God do not like the work of God. Expect it. Keep pressing forth. Keep looking to Christ. Keep working unto the Lord. Keep working. bar the doors, monitor the gates, that's the message. Christ. Christ will do it. Emmanuel, God with us. Amen? Let us pray. Lord God, we thank You. We thank You for this message. We thank You for Your words, this perfect preserved word that You have given us. We thank You for what You did through Nehemiah. And all of those who built the gates, we thank you for these messages and helps and encouragements. Lord, help us as we think about your coming and as we think about you in our midst. Lord, make yourself more and more evident within us, I do pray. Protect us. Let us see the importance of barring the doors, closing the gates. Lord, help us, we do pray. Bless all of those today in the sound of our voice. Lord, convict us and encourage us. Strengthen us, we do pray, in your name. Amen.