Nehemiah chapter 6 verses 1 to 5 or
rather verses 1 to 4.
Now it came to pass when Sam Ballat
and Tobiah the Gesham and the Arabian and
the rest of our enemies heard that I
had builted the wall and that there was
no breach left therein.
So at that time I had not set
up the doors upon the gates.
That Sam Ballat and Gesham sent unto me
saying come let us meet together in some
one of the villages in the plain of
Ono.
But they thought to do me mischief and
I sent messengers unto them saying I am
doing a great work so that I cannot
come down.
Why should the work cease whilst I leave
it and come down to you?
Yet they sent unto me four times after
this sort and I answered them after the
same manner.
I want to direct your attention especially to
the words I am doing a great work
I cannot come down.
This evening I want to draw your attention
to this Old Testament story.
You have read it and I am sure
you are familiar with it.
You have had I am sure many sermons
preached from the passage of scripture that I
have just read.
It is the record of the rebuilding of
the walls of Jerusalem.
This man of God Nehemiah was called upon
to do a great work rebuild the walls
and that work he did but not without
opposition.
There were those there who were against him.
In that connection I would say this to
the man who is out to do the
will of God today.
The man who is called to rebuild the
walls that are broken will very soon discover
that there is no easy way to victory.
We are living in an age when it
has become increasingly difficult to proclaim the full
gospel of God or get men and women
to listen to God's truth.
These are the days in which we live.
There are forces arrayed against us today forces
that are out to defy every known Christian
principle but as men and women who love
the Savior who have been called and commissioned
by God to be his builders in the
world we dare not run from the opposition
nor must we ever succumb to it.
The message of the gospel was spoken against
is spoken against and will be spoken against
by the enemies of God.
And we dare not, we must not expect
anything else.
The work of God is still a sign
spoken against.
But here we have a man who obeyed
God and obeyed God rather than man.
God had commissioned him God had called him
and in spite of all opposition in spite
of misrepresentation and misunderstanding he went on quietly
and definitely and with purpose to fulfill God's
commission and the wall was built.
Oh how challenging are his words should such
a man as I flee.
Yes they were doing their utmost to get
him to leave the wall doing their very
best to get him to come down in
other words to lower his standard to worldly
conformity.
But should a man like I like me
run away or as we have it in
our Gaelic bible the revised person will a
man like me run from it.
You see it was a man who fought
through because he was convinced that he was
called and chosen and because he was convinced
that he was called and chosen by God
to do something he must be faithful.
Chapter 2 and verse 12 clearly indicates that
he had a heart experience of God and
that makes all the difference.
Oh to have a heart experience to know
in my heart God's commission to know in
my heart God's purpose to hear at the
ear of my heart God's call.
Then I believe with that call ringing at
the ear of the soul I shall go
through in spite of all the opposition the
enemy may throw against me.
God in my heart that I was to
build the walls of Jerusalem.
Now there are three thoughts to which I
want to direct your attention in this connection
and the first is that we have here
a man called of God commissioned by God
to do a great work.
He was called upon to build that which
was broken.
Called to build that which was broken.
There are few pictures in Old Testament stories
so vivid so arresting as that picture of
Nehemiah during the midnight hour riding round the
walls of Jerusalem.
Oh what desolation met his eyes.
Jerusalem once the pride of the whole earth
now prostrate and broken.
That was the vision that met his eye
as during midnight he surveyed the situation.
Yes I say desolation, broken walls, everything that
was discouraging and depressing to a man with
God's call ringing in his soul and God's
vision before him.
But here was a man who looked beyond
the broken walls and arising in front of
him he saw another vision breaking upon his
spirit.
He saw a new city.
He saw a new Jerusalem.
He saw a temple in the center of
the city and walls built around it and
God in the midst of his people again.
That was the vision that inspired him.
That was the vision that moved him.
That was the vision the vision that got
him into action and gave to his life
purpose and direction.
It was this two-fold consciousness that God
had called him and that a work could
and would be accomplished because of God's call.
I believe that today God is building something
greater, something grander than he has ever fashioned.
The temple of redeemed humanity.
Yes we see much to discourage.
We see much to depress.
The opposition is there.
The enemies are in the field and again
and again we seem to find ourselves outmaneuvered
by the strategy of hell.
Yet I believe in the midst of it
all that God is working and that God
is calling out a people and that God
is placing stones in the temple that will
yet appear as finished, wonderful and beautiful.
The temple of redeemed humanity, the bride of
Christ.
Now I believe that.
Here you have it.
The temple that God is building was the
temple that John saw.
Oh I love that passage.
I saw a new Jerusalem coming down out
of heaven as a bride adorned.
I believe dear people that that holy city
is seen in miniature in every soul born
again of the spirit of God.
That is a temple, a miniature temple that
speaks of the greater temple that will yet
be completed when God will have gathered his
redeemed.
The new Jerusalem coming down out of God
from heaven.
Was it not Chias Wayne who said a
number of years ago, I remember listening to
him, as he spoke over the air, you
can build a new Jerusalem in any community
providing you insist upon the regeneration of the
individual.
And I somehow believe, I was saying that
to the pilgrims today, I believe that stones
are going to be lifted out of this
community.
I believe that workers on the wall will
handle stones and place them in the wall.
Broken yes, just not.
But stones placed not only in the wall
but in the temple that God is building.
I sometimes think of precious souls redeemed by
the blood of Christ lifted from the ways
of sin and from the gutter of the
devil.
Yet lifted by God to sparklers diamonds in
the coronet of Christ's eternal glory.
Oh what a commission, what a privilege, what
a calling to be entrusted as builders in
this great enterprise.
Paul sets it in clear light in his
testimony before Agrippa, we read it in that
passage.
And listen my dear people, this concerns us
all.
It's not something that has to do with
preachers, not something that has to do with
ministers or pilgrims.
I send thee to open their eyes and
to turn them from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan unto God, that
they might receive forgiveness of sin.
And I believe that there are multitudes today,
yes in this very community, conscious of their
desperate need.
No they will not acknowledge to you, they
will not acknowledge to me, but I believe
deep down in the human heart crushed by
the tempter, that there are feelings and aspirations
after something different.
And I believe with all my heart that
if we could but touch them just there,
there would be in our day and generation
a response from those who are seeking after
reality.
I believe that today men are positively tired
of dead formality in the realm of religion.
They have tried this and they have endeavored
in that field and they have come back
from it all baffled and frustrated.
And I believe that we are commissioned to
proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ and declare
to such that there is a savior from
all sin, that there is pardon for all
our offenses and power in the precious blood
of Jesus to expel the venom of sin
from our lives.
That's our commission my dear people, that's our
commission.
To that I believe, oh to that we
are called.
Oh who tonight, who profess to have entered
into saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ,
I say that is our commission.
To tell, to proclaim, to declare what God
has done for our souls and what he's
prepared to do for the souls of men
who today are held bondage by sin and
the devil, in bondage by the God of
this world, that is our commission.
Yes, here is a man who heard the
call, here is a man commissioned by God,
here is a man who went through and
dared to believe that the God who commissioned
him would be the God who would equip
him and the God who would enable him
to complete the task given to him today.
Oh I wonder if that is your vision
tonight.
I believe that we are met tonight at
the beginning of this mission in the will
and purpose of God.
I cannot but believe that.
God has ordained, God has given commission to
his ambassador and I believe with all my
heart that it is the purpose of God
to build a wall that is broken, to
restore the years that the locals have eaten,
to cause the waste places to bloom again
and the wilderness to blossom as the garden
of the Lord.
Oh can it be possible in this community,
in this environment where things are so hard
and so difficult, well that was the vision
that Nehemiah had.
Broken walls, a picture of desolation, a wilderness
indeed but in the midst of it God
built his temple, in the midst of it
God built his walls, God commissioned, God equipped
and God fulfilled his purpose.
I want to ask at this moment here
I go any further, is that your vision
for this community?
Is that your vision for this town, this
city?
Do you believe that God could and that
God will and that God can so move
in our midst that men and women will
be made to feel the impact of God?
It's not going to come through preaching, it's
not going to come through organization, no, it's
going to come through an awareness of God.
Here is a man aware of God.
No because I'm aware of God, because I'm
conscious of God, because this consciousness of God
within my own personality has created within me
a great confidence in the God that is
real to me.
Then helping me I will go through and
fulfill his purpose in my life and in
the community.
My dear people is that our vision?
Is that our vision?
For lack of it scripture tells me that
the people perish.
But he is not only called to do
a great work, we have here reference to
a great effort by him.
You see here was a man who put
everything into it, everything.
I am doing, doing as distinct from dreaming,
doing as distinct from thinking or meditating.
Oh there are so many of us and
we dream about revival and we think about
an awakening and we talk about the need
to do something definite for God but somehow
little is being done.
Well you have evidence of that in what
you see in the prayer meeting.
If the prayer meeting is the barometer of
any church, if the prayer meeting is the
barometer of any mission hall, then may I
ask what about the temperature?
If that is the barometer of my spirituality
and the spirituality of my congregation or mission,
then what have I to say about the
atmosphere and the spirituality and the effort that
I represent?
I could bring you to a church in
London where on a Sabbath you may have
anything between two and three thousand listening to
the preacher.
But I have this on authority that if
you go to the Wednesday prayer meeting you're
fortunate if you get thirty.
Tell me this, is Sunday morning or Sunday
evening the indication as to the spirituality of
that congregation?
No.
What you see in the prayer meeting on
Wednesday indicates the depth of spirituality.
Now we want to think of that.
Oh we want to think of that.
Here is a man who did something.
Oh no he didn't dream about it.
He didn't talk about it.
He put everything that he had into it
and left God.
Who was it said and said wisely?
Work as though everything depended upon you and
pray as though everything depended upon God.
But I maintain my dear people that that
is exactly what this man did.
There was effort.
There was endeavor.
Yes there was a measure of organization.
But I believe that behind it all there
was also fervent prayer and waiting upon God
behold behind all his outward service here was
a man who set time apart to consult
God.
Oh how arresting and how illuminating are the
words I sat down and wept.
Chapter 1 verse 4.
I sat down and wept.
I mourned certain days.
I fasted and prayed before the God of
heaven.
Oh how little we see today of the
sitting down attitude.
How little we see today of weeping.
How little we see today of mourning in
the presence of God or fasting.
I mean by fasting, waiting in the presence
of God.
Be that long or be it short, be
it hours or be it days.
I believe that it was what came to
that man of God as he fasted, as
he prayed, as he mourned.
I believe it was what came to him
then that moved him into action.
That sense of responsibility.
God has called me.
God has set me here.
Because God has called me and God has
set me here.
I must recognize my responsibility.
Oh tell me dear people do we realize
our responsibility?
Do I realize my responsibility in face of
the desperate situation that confronts me today?
In face of the appalling state of the
Christian church and the masses out with the
church that are moving heedless and careless to
their doom?
Tell me is there any sense of responsibility?
I think of this dear man and you
see this sense of responsibility gripping him very
early in life.
It began in the king's household.
You recall that his witness there was a
very restricted witness, a very restricted one.
It was just in the king's household and
between four walls.
As the king's carbera he was a man
who realized that his position was an opportunity
for furthering the cause of God.
He was the custodian of God's interest there.
And I believe because he was faithful in
the little, because he was faithful in the
home and in the family, in the king's
household, God commissioned him to do something greater.
Surely that is a secret of success.
In the life of every Christian worker I
remember being blessed and stirred in my soul
through reading a verse in Psalm 68, God
saideth the solitary in family.
Terrific word.
God saideth the solitary.
I'm alone there, but I'm commissioned there.
I'm called to do something there and I
must be faithful there even though I'm solitary
and alone.
He was a man alone, but he was
faithful.
He was a man in the midst of
paganism, but he was faithful.
He was a man among those who failed
to understand him, but he was faithful.
And the moment came when even the king
was made to recognize his sincerity and his
honesty.
Oh that God may cause us to be
faithful.
God setting us where we are in order
that we may serve him and fulfill his
purpose through us in that place and for
that hour.
No one lives unto himself.
You cannot live a moment unto yourself.
He was a man who recognized that.
I am influencing for God or influencing against
God.
He was a man who was faithful.
Oh the call of God was ringing in
his soul.
The vision of God was before him.
And I can almost hear him saying God
enable me to be faithful here.
Let me wait your further commission.
Oh my dear people are we there.
I feel that we ought tonight just to
face this question.
I would like to face it in sincerity
and in honesty.
Believing that we are all called of God.
Called to be ambassadors.
Called to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Called to bear in our body the dining
of Jesus.
That the life force of Jesus might be
made manifest through our mortal flesh.
That's our commission and that is our call.
And because he was commissioned and because he
was called, God through him completed the task.
So in chapter 6 and verse 15 we
read so the work was finished.
In verse 16 this work was wrought of
our God.
You see he gives the glory to God.
He doesn't speak of I finished the work.
He doesn't say it was me and my
associates that accomplished the work.
The work of all is finished.
And here is a work of all by
God.
Oh I pray that at the end of
this endeavor here you will leave in this
community monuments to the saving grace of God.
I can visualize this hall being too small.
Too small.
That's our vision.
Too small.
Because of so many stones being lifted from
the gutter to be placed in the wall
that God is building here.
Finished but finished because it must be said
that this work was wrought of God.
Not wrought by pilgrims of the faith mission.
Oh yes Nehemiah was there.
Nehemiah was commissioned and I believe that our
sisters here have been commissioned by God.
Perhaps we commissioned for this great effort.
But at the end at the end of
the task at the end of the day
angels and archangels gazing over the battlements of
glory and saying to one another the walls
are built and it is a work wrought
of God.
You see here's a work finished with the
mark of God.
Oh that we might see that today.
There are these are days when we say
finished and to a great deal but tell
me this.
Has the finished article the mark of God
upon it?
What is the mark of God?
Godliness of character.
That's the mark of God.
Not shouting.
No.
Not singing.
No.
The mark of God is righteousness and truth
in the Holy Ghost.
You know what we need today?
A baptism of the fear of God.
Why these are days when we hear little
and few of the fear of God and
yet I read in scripture that the fear
of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Oh that the fear of God may go
down.
That the fear of God may cause us
to tremble.
That the fear of God may so come
upon us that sin will become something terrible
damnable and devilish.
The fear of God.
Oh no.
There's no easy way to victory.
Nehemiah discovered that.
There's nothing light and flippant about his word.
Today we are living in the midst of
flippancy and whiteness in the field of evangelism
but oh how dishonoring to God.
Now let's face it dear people.
Let's face it.
God's people are a whole people.
They're holy.
God is my salvation said David in the
Michaelic Bible.
He says God is my help.
Shaquille Mohamed.
God is my help.
Where there's wholeness there's health.
Where God is in operation there's reality.
Where the hand of God moves stones.
Stones are placed in the wall and the
wall is built day to day.
When we are frequently found bringing a great
deal of material to the ground.
Oh we are experts at that today.
And if we adopt certain methods and secure
certain personalities we can gather the crowd.
But isn't it strange that in the midst
of our activities the wall is not being
built.
The wall is not being built.
Oh for positive achievement in our work for
God.
Oh for men and women who will handle
stones.
And in the name of heaven place them
in the wall.
And God looking down sees the wall being
built.
According to his plan his purpose and his
specifications laid down in eternity.
Tell me my dear people is that our
mission?
I sometimes say if the men who supported
Nehemiah were not lifting stones and placing them
in the wall they could never be looked
upon as builders.
No.
If I'm a builder I know my trade
and I'm able to place the stones in
the wall and the wall is built.
If I'm not placing stones I may be
a laborer but I'm not a builder.
Oh tell me my dear are we in
that position where God can call us and
commission us to handle stones and place them
in the wall.
Not just a crowd that gather stones together
in a sort of a heap but nothing
that indicates building.
Nothing that demonstrates the work of a builder.
I'm not sure where I read but I
did read it somewhere of a French physician,
a French doctor who full of enthusiasm said
that he had operated upon eight people in
connection with some serious and complicated disorder.
He had operated on eight.
When asked how many he had saved he
replied not one, oh not one but you
see the operations were so brilliant, the operations
so brilliant but he didn't save us all.
Now that would never satisfy an ordinary medical
man.
We must never be satisfied with brilliance.
Oh no.
We must never be satisfied until we see
stones being handled and walls being built and
something appearing that will honor God in the
community leading monuments to his saving grace.
Nothing short of that will satisfy the God
of heaven for the master who commissioned me.
Father, we have here a great resolve, a
great work, a great effort and a great
resolve.
I cannot come down.
Now why did Nehemiah refuse to come down?
Because the work would stop the moment he
compromised.
They said to him now we want to
meet you in conference, we want to discuss
this matter with you, we want to consider
together the new approach and the new technique,
you come down.
Let's discuss it together.
My dear people, in this field compromise is
the curse of the Christian church today.
It's a curse of the Christian church today.
There seems to me to be a gradual
coming down so you hear words such as
accommodate and tolerance.
Accommodate, oh we must try and accommodate them
and in order to capture the teddy boys
we must become a sort of a teddy
boy.
Oh God help us.
I think it was Spurgeon who said if
you see a man in a bog in
order to get him out you're not going
into the bog with him.
You'll stand on something solid and lift him.
That's just what we have before us here.
He was on the wall and he must
not come down.
I dare not compromise in order to accommodate
the world, the flesh or the devil.
We see the tendency today is to do
that but I want to say dear people
tolerance at the expense of conviction and righteousness
is just playing into the hands of the
enemy.
Once a man is commissioned by God he
must go through with God though all he's
combined in the world is crying aloud and
come down.
Change your method.
I remember some years ago a minister coming
to me at the close of an evening
service and saying to me now that sort
of preaching will never do today.
I happen to be preaching that night on
thou Capernaum which art exalted into heaven shall
be brought down to hell.
People will not listen to that sort of
preaching today yet.
The church was full.
In fact there were times at a communion
season when we had the service outside because
the church wouldn't hold it.
That was up in Ballantyre.
This dear man took me aside and took
me away for a walk on a Monday
night and he began to tell me oh
no you must change you'll never do to
speak as you spoke last night.
People will not listen to that and I
listened to him for a little and I
said something to this effect but I cannot
do anything else.
Tell me what is your approach?
What do you preach?
And he told me well I tell you
now you will remember that I and several
others were at a service conducted by you
in your church not so very long ago.
We went to the evening service and you
were 13.
And I understand that you are just a
little over 30 in the morning and 13
at night.
And you want me to change my method
of approach and preaching to your method that
is emptying your church and discard the truth
that is keeping the church full.
And he looked at me and said then
my dear brother you have got me this
time.
My dear brother you've got me this time.
No my dear people we dare not compromise
and I believe if we are true to
God and true to the message and true
to the truth of the world and true
to the bible God will vindicate his own
cause.
The battle may be hard the mountains high
but God will vindicate and God's name will
be honored.
I remember years ago at the Ketse Convention
hearing the lift Dr. Stuart Holden say that
on the day of his ordination his mother
wrote on the fly leaf of his bible
this motto the will of God nothing more
nothing less and nothing else.
The man who will honor God dare not
low his standard the will of God nothing
more and nothing less.
Now how are we going to meet the
attack of the enemy?
Now this I will close.
How are we going to meet the attack
here?
I ask the pilgrims how are they going
to meet the attack?
Is there going to be true to God?
Are they going to be attacked?
I wonder will the attack come from you?
I wonder will the opposition come from some
of you here?
I have no need to come.
How are we going to meet the attack?
I say not by lowering our standard to
worldly conformity, not by scheming or planning of
the flesh, not by coming into cooperation with
a cunning enemy, no but by seeking God,
God's will, God's plan and God's approval and
the will that is good acceptable and perfect.
May God help us all.
But today you see today we have reversed
the order and we have invited the enemy
onto the ball.
Do I tell you what is happening?
We have our bishops and our moderators with
desires in their heart to shake hands with
the Antichrist.
But oh my dear people that could not
have happened in a nearby estate.
His builders held a sword as well as
a trowel and no Sambalic or Tobiah could
stand beside them in the building of the
wall commissioned by God.
They must be true, they must be faithful
and they dare not come down.
Now I wonder if I'm speaking to someone
and in your heart tonight you know that
you've come down.
You were on the wall one time.
Oh you were building and storms were being
placed in the wall.
But tonight you are conscious of the fact
that somehow, somewhere through disobedience, through unbelief, through
sin, you've come down and Tobiah and Sambalic
are your companions.
I want to say friends and I know
this to be true.
If it wasn't true I wouldn't be here
this evening.
I know that the hand that was moved,
that was wounded, that bled, can touch you
tonight into a new sensibility, into a new
consciousness and lift you where you cannot lift
yourself and place you upon the wall with
Sambalic and Tobiah behind you forever and the
Nehemiah supporting you and standing beside you.
Will you ask God tonight to make your
guilt out of you?
Will you ask God to take you by
the hand and lift you?
Bless God that this wonderful Savior can organize
victory on the very ground of your deceit.
He can make you again and I'm speaking
to some in a community and you know
that the walls are broken.
You know that the walls are down.
Oh tonight will you ask God to recommission
you?
Will you ask God to get you to
the place where he can recommission you and
cause you to be again a builder of
victory.
Thank God he can give us back the
gears of the locusts of Eden and the
Naa vessel.
Oh thank God the Naa vessel can be
made again.
God will tonight place you as a builder
in his great scheme of redemption.