Well, we're coming to another blessed gift from God, the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter four, reading verses one through six. But it so happened when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. Here, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads and give them as plunder to a land of captivity. Do not cover their iniquity and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you for they have provoked you to anger before the builders. So we built the wall and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people had a mind to work. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word and it is our joy, our glory to study it. And we desire to not only understand it, but to live it out as well. We pray that you would bless the preaching of your word in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I figured out a way to not bring chronology into my sermon. I gave you a two page outline that has every date from the beginning of Cyrus to the end of Darius's reign. And hang on to that handout because you won't find anything like that online or in various commentaries. I actually found it helpful for myself this past week. I caught a very embarrassing calculation mistake that I made last week. And I think you'll find it helpful as you go read through the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. There are various dates that come up that sometimes can be confusing. You just refer to the road map on there and everything becomes clear. So enough on chronology. Have you done much reading of the books of commentaries and other study books on Nehemiah? You realize that there are authors who have pulled an enormous number of leadership principles out of this book. It really is a marvelous book on that. Gary went through several months that you were on that. Was it more than a year? It seemed like it was quite a long time that that he went through that book. I'm not going to be covering, obviously, all of the things that he did. I'm going to give you more of a bird's eye look of this. But Nehemiah is indeed known best for his leadership that he provided in building the walls of Jerusalem. And the word walls is the key word in this book. Now, why would God devote an entire book of the Bible to building walls? Whether you look at it literally or metaphorically, building walls is not a very popular concept nowadays. Pope Francis has criticized President Trump repeatedly on the concept of building a wall on the southern border. And in his first salvo, when he heard that the president was in favor of walls, he said this, a person who thinks only about building walls wherever they may be and not building bridges is not Christian. This is not the gospel as far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote. I'm not going to get involved in that. I say only this man is not Christian. If he has said things like that. Now is Pope Francis correct? is building walls on Christian. You know, I'm getting myself into trouble on this one, right? Whatever you think about walls on our Southern border, and there are actually good arguments pro and con on the walls thing. My even bringing this up, I bet it's going to generate all kinds of conversation afterwards. But whatever you think about building walls around a country as a whole, this is around a city, okay? I think it is undeniably correct that God himself called for walls around the literal Jerusalem. He called for walls around the heavenly Jerusalem. He's called for walls around the Lord's table and around the church. He's called for walls around our marriages. We're not to marry unbelievers and we're supposed to stay pure within our marriage. In fact, I would say that Pope Francis' refusal to build walls of separation between Islam and Christianity—and actually, for that matter, all religions and Christianity, they've become very ecumenical—that refusal to build spiritual walls itself is blatantly unchristian. Walls are needed and the hypocrisy of his statement even on a very literal basis Is that there are huge walls around the Vatican and all kinds of security measures that are there? But why were walls needed in this particular case? I've put a diagram into your outlines that show where the walls of Jerusalem used to exist at six different stages in Jerusalem's history the early stages of the wall were designed to protect the temple and Not necessarily the entire population that existed in that particular region. And to me, this indicates that the primary purpose of the walls was to protect the temple. It's a little bit different take on the walls of Jerusalem than some people give. And why would there need to be walls around a city in order to protect the temple? Well, it's because the temple had a huge repository of funds, and it would be so easy for armies to go in and swoop it all up and carry it off. Dr. Fugate's book on taxes does a good job of showing that state and church funds were completely separate in the temple, and they had different accounting, but there was a huge amount of state funds, there was a huge amount of ecclesiastical funds in that temple, and by the way, do not equate the temple with the church. It's his throne room over all of life, over the state, over the church, over family, over absolutely everything. It's his throne room. But there's another little fact that we need to look at in order to understand the walls in this book. This may surprise you. Most people are ignorant of the fact that walls had actually been recently built in Jerusalem prior to Nehemiah chapter one. You may not have realized that, but this is why Nehemiah is so surprised when he heard the report, the walls are broken down. Take a look at chapter one, verses one through three. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Now commentators point out that that is a signal that this is the writing of a prophet. They're identical to how Jeremiah begins his book. The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, Amos begins the words of Amos. So we cannot treat this book as simply the journal of an uninspired writer that Ezra somehow incorporated into the supposed single book of Ezra Nehemiah. Uh, last week we saw, these are two books written by two different authors and Nehemiah was indeed an inspired a prophet. And the reason that is important is that there are evangelicals who have the audacity to say that Nehemiah makes calculation mistakes. He makes different mistakes. Why? He's an uninspired person. And Ezra has just included this uninspired journal in his book, just like he included the writings of the decrees of Artaxerxes, you know, and Darius and other people. And so it's no problem saying that Nehemiah has mistakes in it. That is a false, false narrative. Every word of the book of Nehemiah was written by a prophet. Okay, just prefacing what we're having to say here. Verse one continues, it came to pass in the month of Kislev in the 20th years, I was in Shushan the citadel that Hananiah, one of my brethren, by the way, Hananiah was mentioned in, Contemporary, uh, uh, fragments that have been found called the elephantine papyri. It's letters back and forth from various people that are mentioned in Nehemiah and all occurring to the reign of Darius. It's just another little tidbit, uh, of the dating, uh, the, uh, the, the, the, the shorter chronology dating being correct. But anyway, it says, uh, then Hananiah, one of my brethren. Came with me from Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews who would escape to would survive the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire. Now, most commentators think that the walls that are broken down or broken down here by Nebuchadnezzar. On our shorter chronology that would mean it was about a century before and on their longer chronology would be significantly longer than that. And either way, does the surprise and the grief found by hearing, hey, the walls have been broken down and have been burned, does it make any sense? It does not. So even a few of the establishment scholars have been troubled by this, and you all have commentaries like Kidner, Brockington, Allen, and Rudolph who point out That if you take normal exegesis, this cannot possibly be referring to the breaking down by Nebuchadnezzar. This must have been a recent event that had happened because, um, nobody needed to be informed that, uh, Jerusalem's walls were broken down by Nebuchadnezzar. Everybody knew that that's old news. This is new news that is being given. And I can't get into all of the details, but let me have you flip to a few passages that show. that the walls were indeed built while the temple was built. And the first one is Ezra chapter five and verse three. And this occurs in the second year of King Darius. At the same time, Tatenai, the governor of the region beyond the river, and Shethar Bosnai and their companions came to me and spoke thus to them, who has commanded you to build this temple and finish this wall? Notice the phrase, finish this wall. We saw last week that the wall was actually decreed to be begun by Cyrus. I believe that's when it started to be built, was under Zerubbabel. And Patini then sends a letter to Darius complaining, not just about the temple being built, but complaining about the walls being built. Take a look at verses eight and nine. Let it be known to the King that we went into the province of Judea, to the temple of the great God, which is being built with heavy stones and timber is being laid in the walls. And this work was on diligently and prospers in their hands. Then we asked those elders and spoke thus to them who commanded you to build this temple and to finish these walls. Now, if there were no walls being built. Why would he include that in official government letter to the emperor? Uh, that does not make any sense. And again, notice that walls and temple go hand in hand. If you're going to have repository of funds in the temple, you're going to need walls to be able to protect it. So I think it is crystal clear that walls started to be built under Cyrus, whom we saw last week actually decreed the building of both temple and the walls. Now let's move backward a couple of years to the first king who claimed the title of Artaxerxes, namely Gaumata. He's sometimes called Pseudo-Smerdus, that's who I referred to him last week, because he killed Smerdus, the legitimate heir, And then pretended to be Smeridus, he's called Pseudo-Smeridus. But anyway, this is chapter four, and this is in a complaint written from the pagan rulers to Artaxerxes Smeridus, chapter four, verses 12 through 13. Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem and are building the rebellious and evil city and are finishing its walls and repairing the foundations. Let it be known to the king that if this city is built and the walls completed, they will not pay tax, tribute or custom and the king's treasury will be diminished. So notice that the walls are not completed yet, but they definitely are being built. Now, if we count from the second year of Cyrus, when the temple started until this year, a time that this letter was written, they have been working on the temple and the wall for 15 years. And neither one is finished yet. Now they had hoped to finish it earlier, but they had not. Now on your chart you'll see that the temple is finished on the last month of the sixth year of Darius. and was dedicated on the first day of the first month of the seventh year. So it took a total of 20 years to build that temple, not the five years that I accidentally said last week. And we aren't told if the walls took longer and if the walls were finished at the same time, but they were certainly getting close to being finished. So here's the question, just that was background. Here's the question. What event resulted in the breaking down of the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah chapter one, verse three. And my answer, which will be much more fully developed next week when we get the Ezra is that this is the event mentioned in your two page date chart, five Oh nine BC. That's where it's listed there. It was the battle of Gog and Magog that is discussed in Ezekiel 38 to 39, that is discussed in Esther. It was a time when every Jew looked like they were going to be wiped off the face of the map in a demonic genocide. that started with Haman's dastardly decree. And because of the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be annulled, which even King Darius did not have the authority to legally reverse just because of the way things were set up. The best that Darius could do is to give a counter degree that would allow the Jews to defend themselves. And defend themselves. They did. And when you read the death toll and it must've been a miraculous intervention on God's part, but you read the death toll and Ezekiel 38 through 39, you realize it was an incredible deliverance because it took seven years to bury all the bodies, find all of the different bones. And they were spent seven years burning as a, their firewood, javelin, spears, bows, arrows, and other equipment that they brought against Jerusalem to destroy it. The enemies of Israel were demonically driven and they took Darius's first decree very seriously. And apparently they were initially successfully enough to be able to tear down a great deal of that new wall. And after you read Ezekiel 38 through 39 and Esther, you realize that event was indeed sufficient, uh, to, uh, trigger this ruining of the walls. Now Ezekiel mentions that it would take seven years to clean up the land. What is seven years from the Battle of Gog and Magog? Well, it's Nehemiah chapter one, okay? So Nehemiah may have assumed that with Mordecai in leadership, with Queen Esther's influence, with the relative peace that they were experiencing under Mordecai's influence, that the walls would have been taken care of by now. But Hanani reports, the people are still being opposed by some, and the walls are still in the same mess. They've cleaned up the rest of the land, but they have done nothing for the wall. And part of the reason is again, because of the severe opposition from opponents, they couldn't do it. Now this stirs Nehemiah's spirit, and he prays to God in chapter one, a beautiful prayer of repentance and petition on behalf of Israel and on behalf of the city. He realizes that reformation has begun. It began under Cyrus, but it certainly has not finished and he will play a key role in the reformation of society. So you'll see in your outlines that the key theme of the book is the reformation of society. Ezra's focus was on the reformation of the church. Nehemiah's focus is on the reformation of society as a whole. It goes way beyond that. And it's true that Ezra is also in the book of Nehemiah. He's going to be involved in chapter nine in reformation at the church. I mean, the covenant is at the heart. Without the covenant, you're not going to have reformation. But when true reformation happens, it spreads out into absolutely every area of life. And let me list some of the areas of society that this book addresses. labor practices, business practices, politics, administration, communication, marriage, children, a nation's official language, treaties, slavery, immigration, law, travel, work, a civic Sabbath, tithing, war, leadership, money, interest rates, food distribution, spies and intrigue, self-defense, militias, temple, church, preaching, international relations, diplomacy, covenant, legal documents, God's call to be angry over the injustices in this world and other issues. In other words, this book goes way, way, way beyond the leadership principles that many books get into Uh, and that most books are even willing to touch a lot of these issues. You, you just will not find authors daring to touch these issues. So this is not simply a book on leadership. It is a book designed to stir up our spirits, to hate the things that God hates and to start to do something about it. Later on in this book, Nehemiah is going to say, that he got extremely angry over certain things that were in culture. And he's indicating there was a time for anger. If we do not get angry over abortion, there is absolutely something wrong with us. And so he's saying there are things that the church ought to get angry over. And so these and many, many other issues illustrate the difficulties of bringing reformation into a society. Rarely does reformation, if you look at the last 2,000 years of history, rarely does that reformation come smoothly. But because Nehemiah was completely 100% successful by the last verse of this book, we can with confidence, learn a great deal of what it means to bring reformation to Hungary or Uganda or Kenya or United States of America. The key phrase is Nehemiah four verse 18. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. What a marvelous image. They were laying stones, they're troweling, you know, the stones in the wall, the cement that was in there. And they're also ready at any given moment to defend themselves against incoming people. This became the watchword for the Reformation that Charles Spurgeon tried to bring to England. His magazine was called Sword and Trowel. I love that name. The subtitle of that magazine was a record of combat with sin and labor for the Lord Matthew Henry said every true Christian is both a laborer and a soldier Working with one hand and fighting with the other he says every Christian this has implications This book has implications for absolutely every Christian out there. So when you read this book you begin to realize over time that this Christianity is not about a bunch of mild-mannered people teaching other mild-mannered people how to become more mild-mannered. No, it is earnestly contending for the faith. It is earnestly contending against the evils in society, earnestly contending for liberties, earnestly contending against abusive leadership, whether it's in the church or whether it is in the state, just like Nehemiah did. But we must positively build with one hand while contending with the other. Now, the key verse is Nehemiah 8, verse 10. This is the one verse in Nehemiah that I quote probably more than any other. It shows that the Sabbath is the sign of the covenant for the church, and it is the sign of the covenant for society as a whole, but it makes it clear that this sign of the covenant was intended for our joy. Let me read that. Nehemiah 8, verse 10. Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Now people love to quote that last phrase out of context, the joy of the Lord is your strength. And it's absolutely true out of context, the joy of the Lord is our strength in every area, but in context, it is designed to show what the heart of the Sabbath is all about. The true Sabbath was designed to lead us into the joy of the Lord and to give us strength. When rightly approached, the Sabbath is not a dreary and legalistic day, but a day of rest and refreshment for society as a whole. And Nehemiah certainly treated the Sabbath as being not just essential for the church, but essential for society as a whole. Now, for those of you who don't think the Sabbath is for unbelievers, I want you to turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 13, and I'm gonna read verses 15 through 22. It's a longer section, but I think it is worth reading. Nehemiah 13, and beginning to read at verse 15. And those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. Men of Tyre dwelt there also who brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, what evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do thus? And did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on the city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath. So it was as the gates of Jerusalem, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut and charged that they must not be open until after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gates so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day. Now the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. Then I warned them and said to them, why do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time on, they came no more on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and that they should go and guard the gates to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember me, oh my God, concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy. And I know that that is a controversial subject, but hey, the whole book is controversial, right? Christians don't like the idea of pressing into reformation of society. And they certainly don't like the idea of the Sabbath being imposed as an essential law upon society. But here's the point. You know that society has gone through a true reformation when it keeps the Sabbath. The last blue laws, those are Sabbath laws up in Canada, were overturned when I was, I think probably 16, 17, 18, something like that, and I remember, A number of business owners who spent time in jail because they over and over again, deliberately, defiantly were breaking the Sabbath laws because they wanted to overturn them, and they were finally successful. But what was especially notable to me was none of the Reformed people cared. They had rejected the Sabbath. And to me, that is like rejecting God's great gift. That is rejecting the joy of the Lord. To me, it is ridiculous. The Sabbath is a great gift. And because it is a great gift, Nehemiah was outraged when merchants sought to steal that gift from society. In chapter 13, he was outraged. You cannot escape the conclusion that the Sabbath was intended by God to be imposed on both believer and unbeliever alike. It was intended to be a blessing to society as a whole. I am absolutely in agreement with Greg Bonson on that point. Even the way it was written in the fourth commandment makes it clear that this was not just a sign of the covenant for the church, as Meredith Klein falsely teaches, it was a sign of the covenant for the entire society. Deuteronomy 5, 12 through 15 says, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who was within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, The Lord, your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath. So Nehemiah was not being legalistic when he enforced the Sabbath on foreign merchants who were trading within the land. He believed in free trade. He was all for free trade, but it's within the bounds of the law. Okay. And the Sabbath law is a law for families, for employers, employees, cattle, even strangers who were within your gates, not just within the doors of your house, but within the gates of your society. Do you know why the pilgrims left Holland and came to America? I mean, in some ways they had it good economically. They had it way better in Holland than they would ever have it here in America. Why did they leave Holland? They said it was because the people in Holland refused to keep the Sabbath. And they knew that if the sign of the covenant was despised, eventually the covenant would be despised. And eventually even the laws of that covenant would be despised. And, uh, they were exactly right. Uh, the, the, uh, Holland, uh, became a perverse country way, way more quickly than any of the Sabbatarian countries ever did the sign. Well, anyway. Nehemiah 8 verse 10 is the key verse of the whole book because the Sabbath is at the heart of the covenant, which is at the heart of the reformation for that society. And I believe, really, the sign of whether reformation has fully come to a country is whether they keep the Sabbath in the joy of the Lord. A key chapter is Nehemiah 10. It shows an entire nation renewing covenant with God, much like the Scottish covenanters did. Now, perhaps the most famous covenants in history are the Scottish National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant. Now in those covenants, both church and state covenanted with God, much like happened in chapter 10 of Nehemiah. Reformed churches have always said that our God is a covenant God and he expects his people to be a covenant people. Now it's been fashionable in libertarian circles to replace the covenant with a contract. Because contract law fits quite well within libertarianism. And many of these libertarians will interpret the covenant as if it is nothing but a contract. That is a false view of the covenant. We will never see full-blown reformation until we see the full ramifications of the covenant lived out by family, church, and state in every area of social life. Most Baptists don't have sufficient means to produce a reformation because they truncated the covenant and applied it only to the church. We Presbyterians are much better. We've got the tools, but we aren't using them, okay? The covenant is central, but it must be applied. Now, the outline of this book is unbelievably simple. Chapters one through seven show restoration of the walls and chapter eight through 13 show restoration of the covenant. So restoration of the walls that protected the covenant people from their enemies. Restoration of the covenant protected people from sin from apostasy. Now, contrary to the opinion of some Christ is also richly displayed in this book. Jesus said he was displayed in every book of the old Testament. Okay. So the priests all pointed to the priesthood of Christ, and because the whole nation was to be a priesthood to the nations, they point to the universal priesthood of believers. The sacrifices and festival days also pointed to Jesus, just like they do in other books. But the type of Christ that I want to focus on is Nehemiah. Uh, there are actually far more parallels between Nehemiah and Jesus than I've included here. These are going to have to suffice because I could make a list twice as long as this. He is just a remarkable type of Christ. Let me just go through a few of the ways in which he typifies Christ in chapter one, verse four, Nehemiah wept over Jerusalem. It says, so it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Now, Jesus not only wept over Jerusalem and prayed for its elect, for its children, but he wept so frequently that Isaiah 53, verse three says, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And so Nehemiah's intercession, they're passionate types of Christ's intercession for us. Like Christ, Nehemiah lowered himself from a position of glory next to the emperor, Darius, and with all of the comforts of life. And he came down to a position of incredible danger, huge sacrifices, very little comfort. He refused to take the taxes that the emperor allowed him to take, refused to take provisions from the people that were his due, sacrificed hugely for the kingdom. And he did so because he identified with his people. He wept over them in chapter one and in later chapters, he was greatly zealous on their behalf. And Jesus left his glory and humbled himself in the incarnation, being born in a manger, being maligned in life, being maligned in death. And he did so because he identified with his people. And chapter two, verse eight, the King tells him he can have anything he wants to take with him. Uh, he was empowered and resourced for his mission. Even as the gospel of Luke says that Jesus was empowered and resourced by the father for his mission. Luke 10 verse 22 says, all things have been delivered to me by my father. Nehemiah chapter four shows the absolutely irrational hatred of the nations around Jerusalem for Nehemiah. And the reason I say it is irrational is because of the fact that the emperor and the queen were favorable to the Jews. This is not politically expedient for them to be doing this. It doesn't make sense politically. There's something spiritual, there's something demonic going on behind the scenes. These enemies attacked him, mocked him, plotted against his life, slandered him. They opposed his work in every way that they could think of. And this, he stands as a type of Christ who had incredibly irrational hatred from the world against him at every step of his way. This hatred for Christ is so irrational that Psalm 2 begins with a why. Why did the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? Psalm 22 describes the enemies of Christ treating him as a worm, mocking him, raging and roaring against him, pursuing him like a pack of wild dogs and seeking to kill him. Here's another example. In Nehemiah 5, Jesus went to bat for the people who had been enslaved. He freed them and declared a year of Jubilee for them. In a similar way, Jesus quoted Isaiah and said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who were oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And the acceptable year of the Lord was year of Jubilee. On the short chronology, when you line things up, That year that Jesus said, this is now fulfilled in my life, that was a Jubilee year. It's really amazing. I love chronology. I can't get into it today. So that was the acceptable year of the Lord. So this is a book that speaks of Christ liberating power, going not just to invisible things, but even tangible things like economics. The more a society becomes, comes under the influence of a reformation, the more that society experiences liberty and blessing. Now in chapter five, verses 14 through 19, Nehemiah said that he did not come to be served, but to serve. Even though he had a right to the governor's provision, like the previous governors had, he did not take that right. There's something very deliberate here, and I think it's sovereignly done because of typology. Instead of taking finances, Nehemiah hugely financed the kingdom himself. Take a look at chapter five, verses 14 through 19. Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th until the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the governor's provisions. But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides 40 shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God. Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall and we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work. And at my table were 150 Jews and rulers besides those who came to us from the nations around us. Now that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowl were prepared for me once every 10 days, an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this, I did not demand the governor's provisions because the bondage was heavy on this people. Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. He's not bragging. Because remember, he's a prophet and prophets never spoke by their own will. They're moved by the Holy Spirit. So whether he wanted to say it or not, he had to say what was already in his heart. And so the spirit gave this so that we would know, we could see that this was a type of Christ. Now, though Nehemiah's life was repeatedly threatened, he always refused to flee. One time when somebody encouraged him, they're going to kill you. You need to flee into the temple. But it was just setting him up. He said, should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. And in the same way, Jesus faced his persecutors rather than fleeing from them. I mean, it's like, sometimes he would just go right into the lair of the lion and that was bold. But Nehemiah was also a temple cleanser. In chapter 13, Nehemiah was absolutely outraged, rightly outraged over the fact that Elisha, the high priest had been bought. with pagan enemy Tobias's money and had not only entered into an alliance with him, but had made a large room for Tobiah right in the temple. This is weird, beyond weird. Here is the enemy of God and antichrist, so to speak, who's living in the temple. I mean, this is on the level of the kind of conspiracies that Caiaphas the high priest engaged in in the years of Christ. And so chapter 13, verses eight through nine say, and it grieved me bitterly. Therefore, I threw all of his household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms, and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God with a grain offering and frankincense." So he stands as a type of Jesus who, it says, the zeal of the Lord ate him up. The zeal over the house of the Lord ate him up so that he cleansed the temple two times, okay? Again, this typology is remarkable. Chapter 13, verses 4 through 6, records that Nehemiah had to return to the emperor for a while, just as Jesus said, but now I go away to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things, sorrow has filled your heart. And then finally, Nehemiah 8, 9 through 12 restored the truly joyous Sabbath-keeping that God had intended And Nehemiah 13 verse 19 enforced that Sabbath observance as an ordinance upon even unbelievers in the social arena. And this was because the Sabbath was a creation ordinance, or as Jesus worded it, the Sabbath was made for mankind, not for Israel, but the Sabbath was made for man. And as a creation ordinance, that means that the Sabbath will last as long as there is a creation, as long as there is marriage and work, at least that long. The Sabbath was said in the Old Testament to be an everlasting sign of the everlasting covenant. Well, in the same way, Jesus repeatedly bucked and overturned the Pharisees' distortions of the Sabbath, refused to submit to their civil laws on the Sabbath because they were bogus laws. and reinstituted a proper observance of that Sabbath. What he was doing is he was returning the joy of the Lord to that glorious day. And keep in mind that the faulty Sabbath laws that he violated every time were never the Old Testament. He could not be our Savior if he broke one single law of the Old Testament. That's what the New Testament is quite clear on. These were the bogus laws of the Pharisees that he overturned. So in other words, Jesus does not just bring reformation to the church. He brings reformation to the entire society and to the laws of that society. Though the sign of the covenant points to a heavenly rest, according to Hebrews 4, that same chapter insists Jesus did not overturn the Sabbath. Instead, it says there remains therefore a Sabbath keeping for the people of God. Ever since the resurrection of Jesus, where at the end of every gospel, it says the seventh day Sabbath is forever done away with. It passed away, definitively passed away. On the first day Sabbath, Jesus rose from the grave. So that's what each of the gospels say. Jesus, in doing this, what he did is he restored what was lost to Adam and Eve. a joyous resting in God's finished work before we take our week of dominion. First Corinthians 16, one through two says, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also on the first day Sabbath, let each one of you lay something aside, storing as he may prosper. Okay, so that's the Christ of this book. It is richly displayed. Now with all of that as background, let me give you an overview of the book. We've already looked at the prayer of Nehemiah in chapter one, so we'll skip over that to chapter two. And I'm gonna probably spend a bit more time on chapters two through four because they're critical to understanding the rest of the book. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes. Now I won't repeat myself on why a number of conservatives believe that this is the, that the specific Artaxerxes he's talking about is Darius, not Longinus as the establishment claims. On our chronology, Ezra would be 85 years old in this chapter. And somebody asked me, how old would Nehemiah be? I was wrong in my conversation with whoever I talked to last week. I thought he was younger, but I added it up. He'd be 65 years old here. So they're both old on our shorter chronology, but they would be impossibly old on the establishment view with Ezra being 141 years old here and another 12 years of service. And Nehemiah would be 121 years old with another 12 years of service. In any case, there's many, many, many reasons why I believe this is Darius Artaxerxes, our emperor is what it means. He continues, when wine was before him, that I took the wine, gave it to the king, Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore, the King said to me, why is your face sad since you were not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. Now, because of fear of assassinations and poisonings, Kings always look for any signs of irregularity. They would read body language. Nehemiah was a cup bearer. He had a lot of public duties, but one of his duties was to take a sip of wine from the King's cup just to prove that it was not poisoned. Okay. That was one of his duties. And so it says, so I became dreadfully afraid and said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Nehemiah was appealing to a decree that the emperor had made under Haman seven years before that was a genocidal bill. And, um, Then another decree that was made under Mordecai and Esther in the same year. So this is not distant history. Haman's decree had resulted in destruction and the King had saved many lives of the citizens, but he had not averted the problems completely. So this immediately peaks the King's interest. Verse four. And the King said to me, what do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the King, if it pleases the King, and if your servant has found favor in your side, I asked that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it. Now the King, no doubt knew that he had been sent to Jerusalem by his predecessor. Uh, well, two predecessors before Cyrus. But this was still a bold request. Nehemiah was going to be asking for a 12-year absence from the king, a king who hugely depended upon him. Verse 6, then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me and I set a time. Now in the shorter chronology that I hold to, this is Queen Esther. When you hold to the right chronology, these books really do interpret each other. God favored Nehemiah and it pleased the king. And maybe it pleased the king because the queen was sitting beside him and he knew that she was a Jew. That's right. But for whatever reason, we aren't told, he gave permission and he set a time. Now, later in the book, that time that he set was 12 years, a long time to be gone. But the damage to walls and city must have been extensive, and Nehemiah boldly asks for materials for this project in the next verses, and the king grants them. After all, this is good restitution. This is not asking the government for things that they don't deserve. It was the government its decree that led to this destruction. I think it was perfectly just for him to be asking for all of these materials, just like under Cyrus. Now, in light of the events of Esther seven years before, everything here makes total sense. He arrives in Jerusalem, Verse 10 of chapter two says when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah, the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the wellbeing of the children of Israel. Now, why would Sanballat and Tobiah dare to have opposition and hostility to Nehemiah when he came at the decree of the king? Well, because they knew that this King was legalistically bound by the laws of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be annulled. His hands were tied by his first decree under Haman. Yes, under Mordecai, the Jews were allowed to defend themselves, but the law also allowed these Jews to be killed, opposed anytime people wanted to, because that decree said they were enemies of the state. What Sanballat and Tobiah were doing was perfectly legal, not lawful, Only what's biblical is lawful, right? But it was perfectly legal. And so the Jews and their enemies were at a stalemate at this point. They're testing each other, re-evaluating each other's strength. So in verses 11 through 20, Nehemiah surreptitiously and very cautiously investigated what needed to be done in the dead of night with nobody except very, very trusted advisors being with him because he's on a dangerous mission. He could be assassinated. So verse 16 says, and the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work legally, he could have been killed at any time based on that previous decree. Anyway, he gives a speech when it is day and convinces the leaders that the emperor had authorized him to rebuild the walls. And they're quite willing to join with him. The boldness of Sanbalat and Tobiah's opposition in verse 19 is astonishing given the King's decree. But later in the book, we understand why these guys have somehow made an alliance with key leaders within Israel. They have enormous influence within Israel. And so it makes them very bold and brash verse 19. But when Sanbalat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Gishom the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us and said, what is this thing you are doing? Will you rebel against the king? So I answered them and said to them, the God of heaven himself will prosper us. Therefore, we, his servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem. Just like Ezra did before him, he drew tightly the lines of antithesis and he was has enough of an army and cavalry with him. Verse nine is quite clear. The, the emperor authorized him to come with a pretty large army and cavalry that these guys don't dare directly attack him. Okay. They've got to oppose them in other ways. So Nehemiah begins work on the wall in chapter three, we've got a marvelous description of the administration of the work. where each family takes ownership for part of the project. They get credit for what is accomplished. And hey, if it doesn't get accomplished, everybody knows who was messing up on this. This chapter is so against communist philosophy. I mean, there's a lot of beautiful things in here that Gary covered in his class that we can't get into. Now, throughout this book, Nehemiah's responses beautifully illustrate the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Contrary to the opinion of some, it is divine sovereignty that enables us to be truly responsible. When confronted with a problem, he doesn't just say, Oh, let's pray about it. And then not do anything. No, he uses every resource and ability that God gives to him while trusting God in the use of those things. For example, in chapter four, prayer for help in verses four through five, immediately leads to work on the wall in verse six, prayer for protection in verse nine, immediately leads to setting an armed guard. They knew they had to use every means at their disposal, and when they are fully living out their responsibility, they know they can trust God with the results. That's the balance in the Reformed faith. It would be presumptuous to do otherwise. Whenever I read this book, I know you guys probably get tired of my saying this thing, but I am reminded of Oliver Cromwell's statement, trust God and keep your gunpowder dry. Trust God and keep your gunpowder dry. He's saying we have to be responsible, and yes, we can trust God to bless our responsibility. There's no passivity in Nehemiah. Now, I have actually had people tell me that the reason that they are not active is because the scripture commands them to wait upon the Lord. And my response to them is, yeah, of course the Bible calls us to wait upon the Lord, but what that means is we're to look to Him for the pattern and the strength for what we do, right? There is never an antithesis between our trust in God, faith, and our energetic exercise of our responsibilities. You look at the big chapter of faith, Hebrews chapter 11, and every example of faith has what? It's got action that is involved in it. And you see the same thing in this particular book. Isaiah 40 verses 29 through 31 has been quoted to me so many times, and I love this. It says, yes, we should wait upon the Lord, But it does not say those who wait upon the Lord shall roost like lazy chickens, right? It says those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. In other words, there's always activity. Now let's look at the practical activities that Nehemiah used to handle opposition. First form of opposition is given in chapter four, verses one through six. It is scorn. The enemies mock and deride this project. They try to make it look impossible. Now we could summarize the criticism of the enemies in the scornful phrase in verse two, what are these feeble Jews doing? It seems when you look at what they're doing that these enemies really thought this was a useless exercise, that nobody's going to be able to accomplish this. It is an enormous project that they are taking on. And this scorn was designed to demoralize the workers and keep them from working. Well, you know what? In our lives, when people Cast negative affirmations into our lives. It's very easy to not reject that and go to the Lord and say, no, I reject that. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Scorn could be very demoralizing. How did Nehemiah respond? He ignored them. He prayed the scriptures. He got back to work. And by the way, his prayer is an awesome prayer. It's not a prayer for guppies. It is a prayer that calls down God's judgments on his enemies. And I think there needs to be more of this kind of praying in the church of Jesus Christ, but he did not allow scorn to make him give up on his work. Next form of opposition was the use of force in verses seven through 23. When scorn failed, it gave place to force. We should not think that the church is exempt from physical persecution like the church in China is beginning to really experience with intensification. If we're not building on the walls, if we're compromising in our faith, yeah, we might be able to get away without any physical persecution, but if we are truly taking on the walls that God has called us to take on in the reformation of society, It is likely that the pressure is going to heat up against us. Look at the formidable alliance, Sanbalat, Tobiah, Arabians, Ammonites, and Ashdodites. These guys hated each other's guts. Isn't it amazing that mutual enemies will become mutual friends when they're opposed to Christians? That's what happened with Jesus and Luke. Chapter 23, verse 12, it says that Pilate and Herod, who hated each other, patched up their quarrel on the day that Herod mocked Jesus. They now had a mutual enemy. The third thing to discourage them was the enormous amount of rubbish. And you can see this in chapter 4, verses 2, 10, and 19. It was just overwhelming. In verse 10, the leaders of Judah sound like they're ready to give up. The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall. There's the negative affirmation. We can't do it. Far more rubbish than they could handle, or so it appeared. Now, no doubt, it was back-breaking work, and it was heart-breaking work, because it seemed like there was just never an end to the work that needed to be done. And we live in a day and age when there is so much rubbish that is hindering the progress of the kingdom. And furthermore, the manpower for removing that rubbish is just spread out so thinly. I think the words of Nehemiah could come straight out of the mouth of the church today. The work is great and extensive, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. What kind of rubbish, what kind of damage are we having to try to undo that Satan has created? It is huge. The leadership in both major political parties seems to be controlled by the shadow government. Neither one seems to follow constitutional restraints. Socialism of every brand seems deeply entrenched. State schools seem to be supported by even Christians. Evolutionism infects the thinking of everyone. Feminism, LGBTQ+, agendas, abortion, attempts at gun control. And you look at the agencies. Have you seen how many hundred agencies do we have on the federal level that controls absolutely every area of life? You look at all of these things. It is rubbish that seems so overwhelming. There is no way that we can overcome it. But here's the thing. Nehemiah shows us that we should never say it's impossible for God. We just do our duty first. Rather than having their vision clouded by the circumstances, Nehemiah exhorted them to have a vision that was driven by the greatness of God. Take a look at verse 14. Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord great and awesome. If we could be driven with a vision of how awesome our God is, that there is nothing that is too difficult for him, I think it would chase away our fears. I think it would tend to chase away our fears. Our problems is we tend to We tend to look through the sunglasses of our difficult circumstances and everything looks dark and gloomy. Surprise, surprise. That's what sunglasses do, right? So God wants us to take off our sunglasses to put on the spectacles of the scripture so that we can look at life through his perspective. And all of a sudden, things look brighter. They look cheerier for us. I love the story. of Elisha and his servant Dothan. The servant thought the end had come when he looked out of the city and he saw the city was completely surrounded by soldiers. And he thought Elisha was nuts when he said that greater are they who are with us than they were with them. But God opened up his eyes and he sees all of these fiery chariots and horses and angels ready to wipe out the army if need be. And suddenly, his perspective is changed. No longer does it seem so hopeless. We need to immerse ourselves in the realization that our God is mightier than our enemies and God is on our side. And I think we've got far more reason for hope than they did because we live in the age of the mediatorial reign of King Jesus. Secondly, they were to realize the issues that were at stake if they did not act. This is verse 14, and fight for your brethren your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. They could expect no mercy from their enemies if their enemies were going to triumph. And if only the churches of today could realize the stakes the things that are at stake with their compromises, and yet so many Christians actually promote pluralism. Did you realize pluralism is one of the chief weapons of the humanists to expunge the exclusive claims of Christ from our society because they're incompatible with pluralism? Utterly incompatible. Jesus claims universal lordship. He says I am the way the truth and the life No man comes to the father except through me. He claims every square inch of planet earth, but here's the thing. So does Satan? Satan claims everything he wants universal aspirations as well So Satan is not content to keep some territory and to let us have the rest he wants universal dominion and if we do not conquer Satan will There is no neutral ground, and as many Christians in communist, Islamic, Hindu, Other satanically controlled countries realize those kinds of systems bring nothing but tyranny. The stakes are high in the conflict between the universal claims of Christ and the universal claims of Satan. And it is conceivable that within our lifetime, we may see our sons, our daughters, our wives, our houses becoming in jeopardy as they were in Nehemiah's day. The greatness of the state should stir us up to embrace our task with vigor as well. Thirdly, Nehemiah instructed them to both build and to be ready to fight at a moment's notice. They would have a tool in one hand, as it were, and a weapon in the other, and I've already dealt with that. And so that's the bulk of where the spiritual principles are going in this book. And I'm just going to whiz through the rest of the book. This book does not just deal with external enemies. It deals with internal problems as well. In chapter five, he deals with oppression, economic antinomianism, even slavery. In chapter six, he deals with Jews who were siding with the enemy and had compromised. They posed a huge problem for him. And yet, despite all of these problems, verse 16 of that chapter says he finished the wall. Chapter seven says he repopulates the city with people, many who have come 35 years before in that first immigration. So he just keeps working, trusting God with the results. Then in chapter eight to the end of the book, we have a restoration of the covenant. The covenant is based upon the law of God and the grace of God and God's grace works through his word. And so Nehemiah preaches the word. He's explaining the application of that word in the next few days. He reinstates the truly liberating joyful Sabbath versus nine and following they celebrated the festival of tabernacles chapter nine. There's a corporate confession of sins. which is the prelude to re-covenanting with God. In chapter 10, there's a signing of covenant documents by both church officials and state officials, actually by every member of the church. The issue that sparked this was people marrying unbelievers. This was either a new falling away, or it was exactly the same event that Ezra dealt with in chapters 9 through 10. There are commentators you get on both sides of that question. I'm not going to get into it today, it'd bog us down. But it was critical that the homes be strong if church and state is to be strong. And so chapter 10 makes a covenant with families, church, and state. In many ways, this was identical to the Scottish covenanting that went on during the reformations in Scotland. Chapter 11 lists people who moved into the city of Jerusalem. I don't know, did you guys go over chapter 11? Even that chapter has got all kinds of really cool lessons, such as administration. Migration. People moving. Oh, the inconvenience of moving, but they move for the sake of the kingdom. Resetting family traditions, et cetera. Chapter 12 highlights dedication of both wall and temple again. Then chapter 13 deals with a summary of reforms that Nehemiah was instrumental in. Verses one through three, deal with very important principles of separation that run completely counter to the modern ecumenical movement. God could care less about a united church. Actually, he would be opposed to a united church if it's not united in the truth and united in holiness. That's what God is concerned about. Now, I already mentioned Nehemiah throwing all of the furniture of Tobiah out of the temple. And then in verses 10 through 14, he deals with reformation within the temple and making sure that the poor priests were adequately compensated for their labors. These guys had to go off and tent make in order to survive. And Nehemiah wants to make sure they can concentrate on their service. There is precedent in the law for ministers to be full-time well-paid servants rather than tent makers. In verses 15 through 22, he threatens to lay hands on merchants from Tyre who were selling wares on the Sabbath, and establishes the principle that the Sabbath is for Jew and Gentile, believer, unbeliever, past, present, future. And yes, there are civil penalties for breaking the Sabbath in the law of God, but this is one of many passages that show that's a maximum that would rarely, except for the most flagrant examples, get implemented. There can be lesser penalties, but in any case, we've already seen that it is an abiding and enduring law as long as the earth lasts. In verses 23 through 27, he deals with those who had married unbelievers. Now, people are troubled by verse 25. Look at that. He contended with some. He pronounced curses on others. He slapped some. He pulled out the hair of some. But it made it interesting to watch that and people say that's wrong civil magistrates not allowed to do that well Only a few of these people had that and we don't have the time to get into it because Ezra had to deal with which few were but I can assure you that the Old Testament is gave much more severe penalties for those who had engaged. There were certain crimes that some of these had engaged in, in their intermarriage with, well, we won't get into that, but I have no problem with his lesser penalty. We can talk about it afterwards. Verse 26 makes it clear that Solomon was in sin when he married multiple wives and when he married pagans. And verses 28 through 29, he drove out one of the grandsons of the high priest because he was married to the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. When you are covenanted with Israel's mortal enemy, you are engaged in treason. If anything, Nehemiah was going extremely light on this person. For those of you who are discouraged over the problems of the church in our day, take heart from Nehemiah. What may look impossible to you is possible for God. Compromise does happen. We get discouraged over those compromises just like Nehemiah did, but we must constantly work for reformation. We can never let our guard down. As early Americans used to paraphrase John Philpott Curran, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. When even the priesthood was in a mess, you can imagine that the work Nehemiah had cut out for him seemed overwhelming. And yet he was successful. The last verse of the book says this, Thus I cleanse them of everything pagan. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service and to bringing the wood offering and the firstfruits at appointed times. Remember me, O my God, for good. In short, Nehemiah is a call to not ignore the problems that we face in our society, no matter where those problems may appear. Jesus Christ claims every square inch of planet earth, and we are his ambassadors, reconciling the world to Christ. And we are lousy ambassadors if we claim there's any area of life, like politics, or education or anything else that we don't want to see the Supreme Lordship of Jesus over. If Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all. That means he must be Lord of politics, education, and everything. May we be involved to the degree that our callings allow and may God give us success in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Amen. Father, what a sobering thing it is to look at the daunting task of reformation of society. Reformation of the church seems hard enough, but Father, this seems like an almost impossible dream to see a Christian America that is living out joyfully the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of life. Father, may we see that. And if we can't see it in our lifetime, may we at least be a part of the process of incrementally moving your kingdom forward. Did you not promise in Isaiah that of the increase of your kingdom and of peace, there would be no end? Father, we pray that you would increase the kingdom of Christ through our efforts here in Nebraska and Iowa and throughout the Midwest here. May you increase the efforts of other people who are discouraged perhaps, disheartened and upset with the state of things in America. May you raise up a mighty army of hundreds of thousands of people who are angry over abortion. Not just a tiny handful of people, 30 people at a clinic, but 10,000 people at a clinic. So much so across this nation, that abortion is completely wiped off the face of the map. Father, be pleased to bring reformation to our society. Though we are weak, yet we are strong through your strength. And so we commit ourselves to taking the part of the wall that you have tasked us with, not looking at the whole wall or the whole city, which could be overwhelming, but just being faithful with the little bits of duty that you have put before us. And father, may we see your kingdom come, your will being done more and more in our lifetime. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.