And I said to the nobles and 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. And 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 the dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, let every man and his servant pass the night with Jerusalem, that they might 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, dear saints. Thank you for that beautiful reading of sacred scripture. Given the current environment in which we all live, not only in our country but around the world, it is amazing and wonderful that God had this particular sermon prepared for us at Redeemer on this Lord's Day, though originally it was going to be preached in the evening. Lord willing, we'll return next week to our First Corinthians series and start up again at First Corinthians 5 at verse 3. But for now, let's pray together. Father, we thank you that as we pray, we're praying together as the Church of the Living God, as all of us in your congregation here have gathered in their homes to worship you as the body of Christ, one incarnated holy church and we thank you that we have been able to bring our hearts to you today and we do and want to keep the sabbath day holy and do it to the honor and glory of your holy name now feed us jesus as he is the bread of life the one we must have we pray in his holy name amen sometimes the lord calls us his church children to do things for a time that he does not typically require us to do all the time. Almost all of us know examples of this in our own lives, as for instance, when we spend many hours in a hospital with loved ones, or when we experience sleepless nights for a while because of various serious and unusual problems that we all may be facing. And today, of course, this concept is especially true. Now in this morning's text, the Old Covenant churchmen are asked to perform certain necessary duties that, if these were perpetually required of them, would prove to be overwhelming and humanly impossible over the long haul. But love enables us, the Church of God, to do very many valiant things and tasks because the object, Christ, and objects, his people, of our love motivates us and makes us glad to do them. Hence, in relation to our blessed Lord Jesus, let us make it our goal this morning to understand that faithfulness occasionally calls the Church to some extraordinary measures. With this in mind, we'll study today Nehemiah 4, 19-23. Title of our sermon is Extraordinary Measures. First, the doctrine. At times, the church must endure some extraordinary measures in order to be faithful. After all, if authentic Christianity was easy, everyone would be on board and trying to do it. But God's jewels are forged in the furnaces of affliction and hardship and trial and testing in times of difficulty, even as we're experiencing these days. And therefore, dear saints, let us recognize that at times the church must endure through some extraordinary measures in order to be faithful. First, though these stresses and strains are difficult, and there's no doubt about it, they are hard and trying, but one of the keys to successful Christian church living is to be found in perspective. Dears, if we imagine that what we are currently experiencing, as it is certainly very challenging for all of us, is all that we will ever know, then, of course, we would become hopelessly discouraged. But if we can understand and believe the Scripture's holy teaching that hardships are relatively short-lived, and that they actually aid us in becoming more like Christ our Lord, then we can put up with them much more readily, and we can even be thankful and praise-filled in the midst of them. continuing to keep the commandment to be thankful in all things. Here's a good text on this subject, 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18a, where the Apostle Paul wrote, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. And this leads right into our next point. Though these stresses and strains are difficult, they are nonetheless temporary, yet recurring. The good news is that they're temporary. We're all thankful for that. The humbling news is that they're recurring, which means they come up continuously throughout life in different ways. But that's a good thing because it keeps us dependent upon God through Jesus. We who are faithful in the church by God's grace ought to look at life as a series of mountains and valleys, which are all evened out and smoothed over by our Sabbath rests every Sunday. Even our blessed Lord Jesus had this very same outlook. He knew that the cross, which would be grievous to endure, beyond anything we will ever have to face in this world, would lead to the resurrection only three days later, wherein and whereby his great triumph over death for himself and his church would occur. And that pattern becomes for us today the model for how we are to approach all of life, and including these sufferings and hardships, sacrifices, and self-denials that we're having to undergo now, all of which in Jesus, by faith and grace, lead to character, Christ-likeness, happiness, and fulfillment. If the churchmen of Nehemiah's time had not undergone the deprivations we read of in today's text from Nehemiah chapter 4, we would not be reading anything about them now or any time anywhere. Let's look at that text, it's Nehemiah 4, 19 through 23, and observe together some practical examples of the church's exercise of extraordinary measures. Now these five verses lay out very nicely for us and they provide for us encouraging and inspiring paradigms or models for success in our faith even as we go through very trying and difficult times. Practical examples of the Church's exercise of extraordinary measures. Verses 19 and 20, we may need to make long runs, where we read, and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, the work is great and widely spread. We're 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 the point here, dear saints, is that the rallying spot where Nehemiah would be with the trumpeter may have been, and certainly was in some cases, very far away from some of the workers who were around the whole circumference of the wall work being done on the city of Jerusalem. So when any of them would hear the trumpet sound, they had to get on their running shoes, as it were, and make their way all the way to where Nehemiah was, whether they were far or near from him. All this to say, dears, that sometimes the true religion is not all that convenient, as we're experiencing even this Lord's Day. It often requires something of us that actually believe it, which it does not ask of those outside who do not believe it. We know that Christ Jesus sounds the trumpet, as it were, every Sunday, and he calls his churchmen to gather for corporate worship to honor and glorify him. It's one of the reasons we value the Sabbath days so much, and when they are disturbed by these amazing events, we are given a sense of the wonder and glory of it, and we desire it even more. Most of us know that there are times when our flesh would rather do something else, and hence break the Sabbath day, or stay at home, or not go to church on the Lord's day, the fourth commandment, But there's something at the end of this verse 20 out of chapter 4 of Nehemiah, which is very encouraging, and there we're told that, quote, our God will fight for us. In other words, dears, when we hear Christ's call and gather around our Savior and one another, in that very context of his church, even as we're spread out today, but united in spirit, Jesus' Gospel proclamation in his Sabbath day is grace to us, and our God fights for us. So we're looking at some practical examples of the Church's exercise of extraordinary measures. One is that we may need to make long runs, and then verses 21 and 22, we may need to put in long days. 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. Sounds a bit like sheltering, doesn't it? And being at home, or being placed in a constriction that we wouldn't normally have, And even in those days and as it is for us today, it's asking quite a bit of people. And as we can see from these two verses that these worker soldiers were burning the candle at both ends, as it were. We ought to be mindful of the church saints and those others in government and elsewhere that are doing simply that very thing. Burning the candle at both ends, seeking to find some resolution. May we pray for them. And the answer is found in Jesus. And the church is that eternal institution that prays for all subordinate ones. Not only were they active here in verses 21 and 22 in building or in guarding from sun up to sun down, but also many of them were deprived of the comforts of their own homes, beds, and pillows. Instead, they all had to find some place to lay their heads in Jerusalem at night. And even then they had to be watchful and ready and prepared to take up arms if necessary in order to defend each other from the opponents that were threatening to kill them. All this to say that this stage of the project on the wall building was very stressful and it tried the metal of the covenant community, of the old covenant church. And this situation reminds us that the church on earth is in a militant state. And even as soldiers sometimes have to keep on fighting through thick and thin, through hours and days, until the battle's objective is achieved, so it is for the faithful church as well from time to time. So we may need to make long runs, put in long days, and then finally, verse 23, We may need to practice long-suffering, which is an old-fashioned word for patience. Let's look at verse 23 together. 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. So the last of these temporary indignities and inconveniences to be persevered through is that of having to keep the same clothes on for a long time. Some of us know what that's like when we don't go out of our houses for a while, at least me. I'll keep the same clothes on sometimes. The only possible respite being to wash them on probably rather rare occasions, and that's only if the New King James and the Old King James is the best rendering of the Hebrew here in verse 23, as the ESV, the NASB, and the NIV do not reference the washing of clothing at all. At any rate, it had to become uncomfortable after a while and yet the critical need at that time made everyone willing to put up with this inconvenience and a lot of other ones as well. So what does all this have to do with our lives today in March of 2020? A lot in every way. Just like Nehemiah and the churchmen of his day, we also are being put through some tough times. Believers are not too sure about their jobs, their finances, their futures, their families, their communities, even their church life. Their hearts might be a little bit disturbed and concerned. But in the midst of all this, we trust our good and holy and gracious God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We by grace keep our heads, recognizing that he is sovereign and in control. And we pray. We pray for faithfulness and perseverance, endurance, to continue on to the very end. So instead of rolling over, We have the opportunity and privilege of rolling up our sleeves, as it were, even of threadbare clothing. And just how do we do that? How do we do any of this? By faith. Being willing to worship, pray, and act. so as to continue to forward the kingdom church of God on earth through the covenant community's Sabbath Sunday proclamation and living out of the gospel of grace, which we do throughout the week. So dear saints, as always after doing the explication and the doctrine earlier, let's do a little bit more application today and learn how the church is to prepare for extraordinary measures. A lot of this preparation in our cases has already been done, but there's always need for preparation. Victory is always found in Jesus in advance, in the anticipation of trouble. Hence, together, let us consider how the Church is to prepare for extraordinary measures by harnessing our spiritual Sabbath resources. Harnessing is H-A-R-N-E-S-S-I-N-G. Children, that's bringing it all together, if you will. You know that every Sunday we answer the call of the trumpet. and in our corporate and individual worship of Christ as his church, we invest into the account of spiritual backlog or resources that God has given us, which include strength, energy, encouragement, wisdom, and other graces. We have stored up many, many Sabbaths in the past, many, many sermons, many, many sacraments, many, many times together in prayer, and then we begin to take that advantage to heart. Really, we're like Joseph of the Old Testament, that great figure in the book of Genesis, who gathered grain for the Egyptians for seven years. Pharaoh put him in charge of the project, recognizing that though there seemed to be an abundance for seven years before the famine, he knew, by the grace of God, that trying days were also ahead. Well, there's wise churchmen, they also save, spiritually speaking, in other ways. They lay up plenty of extra for their own soul's welfare so that they can serve others in the church first in the world as well. And they store up all kinds of reserves, financial, material, and other spiritual reserves for the church's future needs as well. And then this leads finally to our last point today. How the church is to prepare for extraordinary measures. By harnessing our spiritual Sabbath resources so that we can expend them when necessary. You know, nothing saved is meant to be kept forever. There will be an appropriate time for its expenditure. Either while we are here on the earth or after we've gone on to the church above in heaven. I would argue that the reason the people under Nehemiah's charge were willing to put up with so much hardship for that time was because they had been able to store up enough hope and encouragement with regard to their success as the church doing God's will, Sabbath day to Sabbath day, and on those other six days working diligently on the wall. Jesus, our blessed Savior, did the same thing. He, quote, saved it up, unquote, until it was time to, quote, spend it all, unquote, on the cross for us, the bride of Christ, the Church, the apple of His eye, the ones for whom He died. Therefore, dears, let us, even in these days, follow His perfect and blessed example and believe in Him, His blood atonement, and glorious resurrection. Let us share that good news with people who the Holy Spirit may be drawing to himself through these very trying days. And let us, like our Lord Jesus Christ, be willing to suffer in order to have a real claim on glory, resurrection glory, in and through the merits and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord alone, all received by grace through faith alone. extraordinary measures. It really is rather remarkable and miraculous that God would bring us to a text like this in days like these. But that's because our God is super-extraordinary. He's sovereign. He's gracious. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what we need. He feeds us everything we need in Jesus Christ, His Son. the bread of life. Let's pray and be thankful to him. Father, we thank you that we can pray today and lift up our hearts to you. As one church, even though we're all separated in our homes, we're together in the Spirit. Grant us grace to love you and to serve you, to long for that time when we're back together in the house of prayer, the house of worship, the place of hope, the house of bread, but we're in it even now. The Sabbath cannot be taken from us. The sacrament cannot be taken. Even preaching cannot. We thank you for Jesus, our glorious Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.