Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Amen, dear precious saints, you may be seated as we're continuing our journey through the fourth chapter of Nehemiah. As I mentioned a couple of Sundays ago, we have seven sermons in this one little chapter of only 23 verses, so it's a very rich one. Before we come into this one, the second of those seven, let's pray together. Father, again we thank you that every word of scripture is given by you and it's all valuable. It is the written word of God. It is your special revelation to your church and also to the world. And we thank you that you have not hidden it from us, but you have revealed yourself in it. You've shown us that you are Trinity. in this Bible, and you have shown us Jesus, the Glorious One. Now feed us Him, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen." You may have heard of the expression, don't mess with Texas. Perhaps, perhaps not. Tonight I'm piggybacking on that very phrase, if you will, and applying it to Nehemiah, to the church in general, and to every particular faithful Christian within her, including all of you. So there's a sense in which you'll leave here tonight saying folks should not mess with and you can put your name in there. Nehemiah's answer to the threatened intimidation that we saw last week and remember Satan's modus operandi or the way he works is always intimidation. His answer to that was not to go directly after those people that had tried to scare him and move him from his resolve. Sanballat, Tobiah, and the others. Instead of going directly to them, he went directly to God himself in prayer. And that's a very important thing to notice. So here comes this threat, here comes this effort to scare and to frighten us, and the very first reaction of Nehemiah is prayer. Now actually, the situation would get worse even after Nehemiah's passionate plea before God, and this helps explain the severity and the intensity of Nehemiah's prayer found in tonight's text. After all, the stakes were really high, there was no room for parlaying or having a bilateral communication with God's foes, And there was no room for being Mr. Nice Guy, really, as we'll see in tonight's scripture lesson. So, in harmony with Nehemiah, let's make it our goal this evening to be winsome and yet dogged, that means determined, in fulfilling the church's mission on earth. We'll be looking at Nehemiah 4, 4-6. Don't mess with Nehemiah. The doctrine, it is a dangerous thing to interfere with the church's work in the world. People don't know what they're getting into when they choose to trouble Christ's Bride, the Apple of His Eye. Because when they do that, they're tangling with God Himself, the Holy Trinity. It is indeed a dangerous thing to interfere with the Church's work in the world. To do so is to make oneself the target of God Himself. And no one with any sense would take on an infinitely greater force than oneself. And God is infinitely great in every way. He's eternal, He's infinite, there's no limit to His power, His ability, His knowledge. And that is actually what sinners do when they choose foolishly to attempt to thwart God, His church, to trouble the people of God, and meddle. with the ministry of the gospel of grace, service, and leadership in the world. It is a serious matter. If sinners want to resist God and shoot at Jesus, they cannot see him, so what they choose to do rather is to shoot at you, the body of Christ. But that is a very treacherous thing to do, a very self-defeating thing to do. The Psalms are full of what we call imprecatory prayers, and We read about the kind of God of heaven, the Lord God, drawing his bow and preparing his arrows against his enemies in Psalm 7, verse 12. It's just one example of many. And hence, Nehemiah joins his God in making this, what we call, imprecatory prayer, which we're going to see. An imprecatory prayer is a prayer of destruction on the enemies of God. So it is a dangerous thing to interfere with the church's work in the world. To do so is to make oneself the target of God himself who, though gracious, does not countenance abuse of his children. Now none of us fathers within our power, and of course our power is limited, would ever countenance any abuse of our children. And the shepherds of the church, the pastor and the ruling elders and the deacons, we would not countenance any abuse of the church's children. And the Lord God counts as no abuse of his children, all those covenanted in his faithful churches. Now the Lord does allow, as you know, his enemies to be the tools for sharpening us and disciplining us and bettering us. And providentially this week here I've been reading a lot out of St. Augustine, an old buddy of mine that I hadn't dusted off for about 25 years, but of late I've been reading a lot. And it was really sweet to read in a book that he wrote about 20 years before his death, somewhere around 410 or so, entitled The Literal Meaning of Genesis. And in it, he has a lot of great theology. And one of them is he makes this brilliant argument, it's just absolutely astounding, with regard to why it's good that God created evil people. And the argument that he's going against is, God shouldn't have done that. Why did he do it? He didn't have to do it. And he shows with cogency and brilliance why it's actually good for the church that these kind of people exist in the world. It actually sharpens us, betters us, makes us aware of the dangers of wickedness and the lifestyles thereof. And so it is definitely the case that God uses them. There are many examples, especially in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, too. In fact, that testament of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, if you were to go on a little more, there's some pretty graphic tone there as well about the situation in the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, there are examples like, for instance, Babylon was told by God to go and destroy Jerusalem, tear down the temple, burn it, and caused the people to go into exile. But, interesting, after that, Babylon itself is severely judged and reprimanded by God, and you can read about it in Jeremiah 51, 11 and following. Now, dear saints, let's get our perspective. The God we serve is a gracious, wonderful God. After all, we're here tonight because of Jesus and his gospel and his mercies. The God we serve is an ocean, a world, a universe of love and mercy and kindness. He is. He's all of that. And he does join to the covenant of his church many of those who were formerly his enemies, including all of us. According to Romans 5.10, while we were his enemies, he saved us. None of us got friendly with God before he arrested us in our sin. So we need to have that perspective. And it also gives us compassion for those who are outside of Christ. But I will say this too, and this is a doctrine you don't hear very often, but it's extraordinarily biblical and it's all over. It's hard to miss. And that is that God also reserves the right to punish and not forgive the sins of some if he chooses. And this is typically, these people turn out to be the church's most recalcitrant and persistent foes. And this is one of the reasons that the doctrines of the gospel need to be fully preached, so that people understand these things. And it's one of the reasons church discipline is a good and savory thing. It tends to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares. and make the distinction rather clear. And we're seeing that very much here in Nehemiah chapter four. So let's look at the verses four to six and observe Nehemiah's strategy and its effects. Now here we get an excellent pattern for how we are to respond to trouble and threats to the church and our individual souls. And I hadn't thought about this, but I will dare us to follow, to some extent, Nehemiah's pattern. Remembering that all the scriptures given by God, all of it is instructive for our upbuilding in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's start with verse 4. He immediately, immediately appeals to God with passion, where we read Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Now, if you were here last week, you might remember verse 3, which was this little toady, Tobiah, making this inane, foolish, stupid statement about a fox climbing on the wall and breaking it down. And we said at that time that That seems just kind of such a ridiculous thing that why would we even bother with it? And yet, Nehemiah's response is verse 4. And I'll read it again. Here, O our God, for we are despised, turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Again, that context builds the reason for this prayer. Now, Nehemiah's instant reaction was to call on God and he asks God to hear what these people had said. And he uses this language of their being despised. But then Nehemiah, frankly, goes on the offensive by praying that the curses of the church's enemies would fall upon their own heads. And then he does something else. Nehemiah asks God that those folks would experience what Israel had just gotten out from under, and that is captivity. You remember the Assyrian kings had been sending them back from captivity. Now there's, I'm sure some of you are thinking, well, is this really coordinated with the Sermon on the Mount and the New Testament? We might be saying, this doesn't sound like turning the other cheek. Remember in the New Testament, Jesus says, somebody strikes you on the one cheek, turn the other. Actually, it's interesting, in John's Gospel, Jesus Christ himself was struck on the cheek during his kangaroo court false trial before the high priest. And he did not turn the other cheek, literally, but retorted to the one who did that. But the reason this is sometimes misunderstood by Christians, and understandably so, and I'm going to help you. understand it better here tonight, is because Nehemiah's prayer of verse 4, and all of his imprecatory prayers, or those of the Psalms or other parts of the Bible, New or Old Testament, and New Testament too, there are imprecatory prayers in the New Testament, where Paul actually says, may the curse be on anyone who doesn't love Jesus Christ. He ends one of his long epistles with that. The reason this can be done is because when Jesus is referring to turning the other cheek, it has to do with one's personal desire for revenge. And that is not something that Christians have a right to. There is no personal revenge. Revenge is mine. I will repay," says the Lord. But it's a different story when it has to do with the corporate church, with the people of God together and their well-being and their work in the world. And this explains the zeal and the fervor in Nehemiah and in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you think Nehemiah is strong and stern, read Matthew chapter 23 sometime and you'll see that it's nothing compared to Jesus' words. So I know that this sounds weird and odd in today's mealy-mouthed religious context. But it is biblical, and it is something that we should be aware of. And remember that Jesus himself was filled with zeal for God's house in John 2.17, and made a whip and drove out the money changers. So, Nehemiah's strategy and its effects, he immediately appeals to God with passion, and then verse 5, He invokes the Lord, invokes, I-N-V-O-K-E-S, invokes the Lord in his honor, invokes means calls upon him, if you will, where we read, do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. I realize that's, we thought verse four was pretty strong, I think verse five is even stronger. But there's reason for this. I know that in our church, different folks use different English translations. Some English versions, like the New King James, the King James, and the ESV, which is the version that the church kind of has formally adopted, Connote this verse as God being provoked. God was provoked. I'll read it again from the ESV. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the workers or builders. Now, other translations like the New American Standard Bible and the NIV, the New International Version, apply the provocation to the builders themselves, so the faithful workers who are doing the work. But it really doesn't matter which version you have and who is provoked because The one flesh principle of Ephesians 6 really comes into play here. What happens to Christ happens to his church. What happens to his church happens to Christ. So it didn't matter whether it was God himself being provoked or the people. The gravity or the intensity or the importance of God's work through the church and the world is demonstrated, the importance of it, I should say, by Nehemiah's prayer. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders." Again, this explains why faithful churches are so serious about certain things. Not everything. I mean, we don't have a huge passion about the color of the carpet, or the time we meet, or things that are not essential. But we have a huge passion for who Jesus is, who God is, what the gospel is, what the church is, what the worship of God is, how it should be done, the day of worship. Those things and how we live in light of our worship as we do the work of the Lord and the evangelism of the world throughout the week. Those are the things that matter. A lot of other things of a cultural or an indifferent nature of little concern to us. We don't need to spend much time on it. But these kind of things really matter. So the wall building project in Nehemiah's day was extraordinarily important. Nehemiah's strategy and its effects, he immediately appeals to God, he invokes the Lord. Verse six, he inspires the church to press on. I think verse six is really interesting. After that imprecatory prayer, we read, so we built the wall and all the wall was joined together to half its height for the people had a mind to work. Isn't that interesting? But the very next verse, following all this intense prayer, don't blot out their sins, etc. the people working, laboring, ministering, even in the teeth of very fierce opposition. And by the way, it really even gets a lot worse as we go through the book of Nehemiah. So, Nehemiah is a great book for us because our lives are not easy. And Satan, even though he's a defeated, frustrated, sullen foe who envies your happiness in Jesus Christ, who can't stand the fact that you're created in the image of God, and that you're enjoying the glories of who God is and who you are as human beings in Christ Jesus. He is a defeated foe, but he thrashes about in his death throes with a crushed skull. And he is doing all he can to make our lives difficult. And he uses people in that regard. So what's amazing though is verse six seems to teach that the provocation of the enemies of God in those days only caused the work to go on faster and fuller and to higher heights. So what's all this mean for us? Well, among other things, it means that oftentimes we as faithful Christians in the church must do our ministry and labor in the midst of uncertainty, stress, danger, and uncomfortability. Not always. I don't mean to imply that that's always the case. It's not like there was never some breaks in the intensity action, even in the time of Nehemiah. And in every other facet of ministry of anyone else you would read about in the Bible, including our blessed Lord Jesus himself, or Jeremiah, or any of the prophets, or any of the others, Oftentimes it is difficult, but the key here is verse 6 again, having a mind to work. And when this is the case, when we have a mind to labor, a mind to serve, a mind to fulfill our ministries, our callings, our gifts, to be full and rich and free in the midst of a congregation of servants of God that we love and tenderly care for and want to build up, then nothing else really matters. Let us, like the believers of Nehemiah's time, resolve in our hearts to live by faith in Christ and do the work of his church, which again is first and foremost worship, all the time, but starts on Sunday in the church, goes from there into the world, and are witness for him in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of all others. So it is dangerous to interfere with the church's work. And Nehemiah had a strategy which came from God. And now let's do a little more application and learn how we practice the don't mess with the church principle. Now we don't adopt this mantle of blessing and responsibility with an attitude of arrogance or pride or desiring to see people pummeled or cast down or sent to hell. Rather, with humility, we recognize that we are loved by God, and as per the earlier reference, Romans 5.10, we actually were enemies of God as well at one time, in one form or another. And therefore, with that in mind, let's learn how we practice this don't mess with the church principle. First, by faithfully looking to Christ. In other words, Our first thought in life, you'll go into the world tomorrow, either school, Bradley, Caterpillar, workplaces, offices, finance, whatever it would be, service ministries, whatever it is, our first thought is not, what troubles are we gonna face? Okay, when we wake up tomorrow, we're not gonna have to say, what troubles are we gonna face? Our first cognition, our first concern is, Lord, what do you want me to do? After all, it was the ministry of the wall building that created the context for opposition. We never embark on a gospel ministry of any sort. And when I say a gospel ministry, I don't mean just necessarily going out on the street and preaching or sharing tracts or something, which is fine. I mean what you do tomorrow in your various realms of life, whatever it is, that is a gospel ministry. We never embark on those with an eye toward the opposition we will experience. Rather, we simply go into it by faith, wanting to do the gracious and right thing with no animosity or prejudice toward anyone or anything. And we take our directions from our marching orders from Jesus, our Lord, and have our eyes fixed on him as per Hebrews 12.2. So by faithfully looking to Christ, we deal with problems as they come. So we win the battle before we engage it. Do you remember way back in chapter 1 that Nehemiah had prayed earnestly, way before he even talked to the king about going to Jerusalem to starting the wall build project? So the battle was really won way back then. But he continued to pray. His first thing was to come to God and to invoke his presence and to pray to him and lay his life before God day by day, Lord's Day to Lord's Day. With that perspective, when we engage a problem in life, we're already prepared. We already have put on the full armor of God. We're ready to stand. We're not unprepared. And we're not naive. We don't go into anything of significance expecting it to be easier not to be met with opposition. anything worthwhile will be. So we come into it recognizing that we can't know exactly what's going to come at us. And sometimes even as well as we're prepared, we still don't know where those arrows are going to come. But we're as prepared as we can be. And in the process of confronting the dilemma and the problem, We call on the Lord, and we get his strength and his help, and we have our victory right in that process, even though the real victory was won before, as we did the preparation. And this is why it always starts in church. So, this situation, though, reminds us that when God found us, according to a very graphic text in Ezekiel 16, we were kicking in our blood and sin. And yet, look where we are now. I mean, always keeping the context of who we were, who we are, how we were outside of Christ, Gentiles removed, now joined together, one covenant of love in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. The Lord Jesus came to this fallen and broken world, and in the very presence of it, he did the supremely great and impossible and difficult work of saving us and building a wall around us and cleansing us as church from all our sin. Really, I kind of like that illustration of Jesus building this wall around us as well. Now, we do no work like that that God can only do in Christ Jesus, but we do respond to that work by faith and love and obedience. And that's what Nehemiah was doing. As we are effective in the world, we will see this gospel flowing in and through us to others as well. And remember, it's the right hand of God to save, it's the left hand of God to judge. The very first thing we want for all people is the salvation of their sins in Jesus Christ. God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. and yet he does allow it. And so we are always agents of grace. Think of it this way. Look at your outline there and consider, don't mess with, and you can have a blank, and you put your name in there. You who are, you, all of you here tonight, you faithful churchmen, You can and should insert your own name there. Those folks who will foolishly choose to trouble you this week, especially if they know who you are and your faith and your life in Christ and your church, especially if that's the case, they will have to deal not so much with you, but with your Heavenly Father, and that's a serious matter. The very one who gave his son for you and shed His blood for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Let's be thankful as we consider that folks should not mess with Christ's church. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for that. Sometimes we lose that perspective of how much you value your people and care for us. And prayers like this of Nehemiah, they are certainly odd to modern ears, but they're Very typical in the Bible, in both the New and Old Testaments, and we thank you that you have provided for all people, all sinners, everywhere, including ourselves, the blessed Messiah himself, who has taken upon himself the burden of your church's sins. Thank you, Father, that you call people from every tribe, nation, people, race, and place, and we pray that you'll do that through our ministries this week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.