So from that day on, half my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, and 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 his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side when he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. Amen, dear saints. We're continuing tonight in Nehemiah. We have one more sermon in chapter four, Lord willing, which would be next Sunday night. And we do pray that we'll be able to be gathered together for that as well. So before we come to this text, as always, let's pray together. Father, it's a good tradition to pray before preaching. And it's not just a tradition, it's a good policy. Because we are approaching the important time of hearing Jesus Christ speak to his bride, the Church. And grant as we close out this Lord's Day with one more message of who Jesus is and feasting on him and then at the table that we'll be well sated and supplied, nourished, and fortified for the week ahead. This we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So when we're baptized into Christ and his church, we're supplied with a spiritual toolbox full of implements, spiritual gifts. And we're also given a spiritual gun rack, finely invested with necessary weapons so as to fight a good fight. So this is a sermon here tonight about tools and weapons. Now, an example of a tool might be love, with which we build up the body of Christ, as per Paul's words in Ephesians 4.16. And an example of a weapon might be shepherding, with which the pastor and the elders and the deacons, too, protect the flock of God from evil and heresy, as per Acts 20, 26 through 28. So in tonight's scripture lesson, the Old Covenant churchmen work on the wall with one hand, as it were, and hold on to a weapon with the other one. Now that's not an easy thing to do. You can imagine. The text actually says that. They're holding a weapon and a tool, if you will, at the same time. But that's the way it is for all of us who are in Christ, even in the New Covenant Church. Spiritually speaking, the tools and the weapons. In brief, tools have to do with diligence in our pursuit of Christ by faith, and weapons have to do with our vigilance or watchfulness in Christ by faith. Therefore, let's make it our goal this evening to employ spiritual tools and weapons, that's the Church of Christ, in looking at Nehemiah 4, 16-18. Tools and weapons. The doctrine, the church needs both tools and weapons to fulfill her mission on earth, are not David's familiar words of Psalm 23 verse 4, an excellent example of this, but also an inspiration for us in a time like this. Listen to these very well-known phrases. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod, i.e., weapon, and your staff, i.e., tool, they comfort me." One verse, tool and weapon, comfort in the valley of the shadow of death. Tools, your outline, are used for the edification, building up of the body of Christ, E-D-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. The doctrine of edification is very prominent in the Holy Scriptures, particularly in Paul's writings. It is a spiritual metaphor taken from the building trades, personification of what edification means. Edification is the building trade metaphor of houses or structures being constructed from the foundation up. The wall builders of Nehemiah's time provide for us in the church in every age ideal prototypes for how we build up the body of Christ. And think about it. When this is done, like when you guys went down there yesterday, you had a plan. You probably had something, maybe even written out, some kind of idea how you were going to do it. And they had a plan. The plan was build the wall. There was a reason for what they were doing. The reason was the person of God Triune God, the house of God, ultimately Jesus. And God's house and temple and city and people had been held in contempt. So there was a reason for their building the wall. There was unity because everybody pitched in. All the different tribes were involved. And there was flexibility because when opponents showed up, tools had to be laid aside temporarily and armaments needed to be taken up to the fore. Your church has a plan, the church's proper Sabbath worship of God to be provided as a model for all people everywhere so that they might know the Lord Jesus Christ and understand who he is and enjoy him in fullness and give God all the praise. Your church has a reason, Christ himself is our reason, the end and goal of all of life, the bread of life, the one who feeds us and who is our energy, who is our life, who is our hope and our happiness. We have unity. We're here all together tonight, for instance, and we're flexible in that we constantly preach and search the scriptures in order to seek to be as faithful to Jesus as we possibly can be. Tools are used for the edification, building up of the body of Christ, and weapons are wielded, W-I-E-L-D-E-D, wielded against God's foes. And children, that word means used, essentially, or waived, or employed. So spiritual weaponry includes preaching and teaching in the church, and we appreciate all our excellent teachers. This preaching and teaching that builds up the body of Christ and encourages the saints encounters and anticipates heresy, false gospels. It also includes, as we saw in 1 Timothy 5 this morning, and actually will, Lord willing, over the next two Sunday mornings, the exercise of church discipline in the church. which is designed to protect the body of Christ and keep at arm's length all those who would seek to harm the sheepfold of Christ's precious lambs. Weaponry is also used against more insidious and hidden enemies, such as our own flesh and our own unceasing desire to find alternative ways to God, other than by faith through Jesus' blood atonement. And that's something that the Word of God, as you hear it week by week, encourages you to be victorious over. The church's tools are not to be employed in the building of the world's kingdom, but Christ's kingdom. And her weapons are not to be used without great care and shepherding. Are we ready to sharpen our swords and oil up our implements tonight? Well, if so, then let's look together at chapter 4, verses 16 to 18. and observe how the Church's tools and weapons harmonize for our good. In other words, they come together, these two. These two dynamics are not opposed to one another, so a tool and a weapon are not in any way opposites. Instead, they depend on each other in order to be effective. Let's consider how the Church's tools and weapons do harmonize for our good. Verses 16 through 17a They aid us in role discernment. R-O-L-E. Children, that means job, if you will, or what we do. Role discernment, where we read, From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, coats of mail, and the leader stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. So there are times in the church where some of us are primarily soldiers while others of us are mainly builders. And again, we have this illustration tonight of tools and weapons. So we have builders and protectors. This is a beautiful picture of the church in the community of grace. We love each other, we protect each other, we build each other up, but everybody's doing something. There's jobs that we all do, every one of us. Now this is a good verse on role or job distinction and description. Think of it this way. Builders can only construct things as sentries are guarding them. In other words, builders can only do their work when they're secure. They're not being constantly having to look over their shoulder to make sure that arrows aren't flying at them. They're being protected. So the builders and the sentries, or the soldiers, sentry is a guard, work together. None of us can be as happy and fulfilled as we could be, as we should be, and as God would have us be, until or unless we find our place in the body or Church of Christ. And that goes for every true Christian. So whether we're ever called to office, formal office, or teaching ministries, or anything else, the point is, every single one of us, and it's never too early to start, praying about discerning, asking others who are a little older, have a little more maturity, who know us a little better, can see our gift set, what is it that I'm good at? Where do I fit in the body of Christ? What would God have me to do? And you're all great models of discovering that already and implementing it. We do indeed need to know what our gifts are. And let's recognize too that though all Christians have equal access to the Lord God, we don't all have the same roles and jobs to do. And that's a good thing because if every function A church could never function properly if everybody was the same or possessed identical gifts. And we even see an interesting note here in verse 16 concerning the house of Judah that some have more obvious ministries than others. But those others who aren't mentioned were just as important as the house of Judah, just because they were the largest tribe. So how the church's tools and weapons harmonize for our good, they aid us in role discernment, and then verse 17b, they promote hope and humility. Interesting phrase, and I use this as our key phrase. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that they labored on the wall with one hand and held his weapon with the other. So what we're saying here is that tools used to build up the church engender hope, right? Because when we're being built up and encouraged, there's great hope that comes through that. And the equal and correlative need for weapons works humility in us because we're reminded that threats to our well-being would constantly seek to undo us. And if we're too complacent, we'll find ourselves in trouble. So we need those weapons. Some commentators have suggested that the weapon that these porters or these carriers of burdens we're actually carrying may have been nothing more than a stone to throw at a foe, whether that's the case or not, this much is certain and it applies to us as well. All of us, dears, work on the wall in a two-pronged approach. On one hand, we do work. On the other hand, we're ready to do battle. And that's a very good way to look at all of life. Our default position and posture is always to be one of engaging peaceful labor as the body of Christ in the world. You might recall a few weeks ago that sermon on a war of words. We don't go looking for a fight. We want to have as our default position as the church a peaceable, irenic, loving, beautiful community of grace. And that's what we are. But when trouble comes to us, we're ready to handle it. I really like Psalm 144, and Elder Craig read it as the call to worship. And I'm going to read verse 1 again. Blessed be the Lord my God. And this is David, the great king, soldier king. He said, God trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. That's good. So how the church's tools and weapons harmonize for a good role discernment, hope and humility, verse 18. They help unite us in our common cause. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. The world is a very fractured place. The only place in the entire universe of human beings, especially in the fall, where there can be true unity and where it has to start is in the body of Christ. Like you are. It's the only place. And we present a prototype or an example, a model of what that can be in a culture too. But it must start here. And Nehemiah, as a type of Christ, was the galvanizing force for all the tribes who were working in Jerusalem. If there was a problem, it would be he who would tell the trumpeter to sound the alarm. And the same is true for us in the church today. When sin, threats, temptations, or heresy assault us, we sound the alarm of the gracious gospel of peace and call to our side and assistance our blessed Lord Jesus. Having to work with a sword girded at one side, verse 18, would again not be an easy task. But everybody knew and understood that everyone else was having to do the same thing. And when that's the case, we draw a lot of encouragement and comfort, because we know we're not the only ones doing that. We all have a sword and tool. In the church it's all for one and one for all. The Bible does never teach salvation or redemption or fellowship with God apart from covenant in the church. Objective, church covenant. And therefore we in the body of Christ need to build each other up and continue to defend each other. Well, as always this evening, let's do a little more application and consider how the doctrine of tools and weapons further assists the Church today. Sometimes it's good to go back to just why we need the resources God has so wisely given us. It's not arbitrary why he's given us tools and weapons. So the question is, What are we to think about them? Well, first, it reminds us that the fall and sin make these grace instruments necessary. You know, if there was no sin in the world, then there would be no need for warfare or for building up the body of Christ, for that matter. The reason? Because there would be no opposition or no imperfection. But in the world that Almighty God ordained to be, things are harder, but they're also better. They're harder because there are so many forces poised against us, the people of God, but they are better, and this is key, because Christ's imputed righteousness to us, his church, and the miracle and love of grace that burns about the gospel is infinitely greater than anything that could or would exist in an unfallen universe. It's a beautiful doctrine of the fact that we're better off now in a fallen world with Christ's righteousness than Adam would be and was in his own righteousness before the fall. Because we have the righteousness of Christ himself. So how the doctrine of tools and weapons further assists us? It reminds us that the fall and sin make these grace instruments necessary and that our success requires faithful diligence and vigilance. Some folks are tempted to think that Christianity doesn't require anything of them, but that's not the case. It is true that we're justified passively through an alien righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to us by the grace of God by which we are given the gift of faith and then profess our faith in the Lord Jesus. That's true. We do nothing to be part of that program except receive that grace by Mercy of God. But we are sanctified by means. And those means all flow from and by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we talk quite a bit about means. Sometimes the ordinary means of grace, the church's ordinances, especially of preaching and sacraments and prayer. But they include everything that pertains to the edification or building up of the body and the defense. of the covenant community. Therefore, dears, let's live by faith in Jesus. And as we take up the tools and the weapons, we are following in our blessed Messiah's footsteps in the loving discharge of both of them. in the glorification of his holy name, the building up of his church. So beloved, tools and weapons are beautiful in the hands of you, God's people. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for that fact, that you do ordain tools and weapons for the good of the church. and ultimately for the good of your entire universe. We thank you that you've given us, your church, the responsibility to set the example and to be faithful and to leave the results with you. We thank you that we've been able to do that here tonight. We pray that you'll bless us now as we come to you again in the Lord Jesus, feasting on Him in the supper. And we pray in Christ's name, Amen.