What’s The Big Deal? (It’s Just A Wall)

Good morning. Today's scripture reading will first come from the Old Testament, Psalm 46, and that's found on page 471 in the Black Pew Bibles in front of you. Psalm 46, so when you've arrived there, please stand if you're able in honor of the reading of God's Word.

Psalm 46, and in the Black Pew Bibles, that's page 471. Psalm 46. To the Choir Master of the Sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Salah. Salah.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.

He utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Salah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes war cease to the end of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth. The Lord of Hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress. Salah. Amen. Please turn now to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15 in the New Testament, and that's found on page 923 in the Blackfew Bibles. Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15 beginning at verse 1.

But some men came down to Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and the elders about this question.

The Jerusalem Council and Salvation by Grace

So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the Apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses. The Apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

After they finished speaking, James replied, Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen.

I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord. And all the Gentiles who call by my name says the Lord who makes these things known from of old. Amen. Please be seated as we pray.

Thank you. Gracious Father, we come to you, and we approach you today on the merits of Christ alone. We come to you, Lord, asking for your help, for your for your spirit to focus our eyes on you in this time of worship.

Help us, Lord, to be fed by your word. Help our pastor to be strengthened, to proclaim your word faithfully and truly. We pray, Lord, that you'd help us to be those who are not only hearers of your word, Lord, but doers also who are blessed in the doing, Lord.

We pray, Lord, for your help in this very moment, and we pray for those under the sound of not only pastor's words, Lord, but your word today, Lord, that that word would fall on fertile soil, that hearts would be prepared to receive your word, Lord, and that even if even if any among our midst, Lord, do not know you, that they would come to know you today, Lord.

We pray, Lord, for those who are yours, even now, that would be fed and strengthened and encouraged by our word, Lord, and convicted by it, Lord. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Nehemiah 3 and the Question of Why This Wall Matters

We'll turn, if you would, in your Bibles to Nehemiah, chapter 3. The entire chapter will be our text for the preaching this morning. As we go through this book, Nehemiah 3, beginning at verse 1, we'll read the entire chapter.

Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brothers, the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel.

And next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zakur, the son of Imre, built. The sons of Hassanah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts and its bars, and next to them Miramath, the son of Uriah, son of Hekaz, repaired.

And next to them, Meshulam, the son of Barakiah, the son of Meshazabel, repaired. And next to them, Zadok and Ba 'anah, repaired. And next to them, the Techarites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

Juada, the son of Peseah and Meshulam, the son of Besodeah, repaired the Gate of Yishanah. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts and its bars. And next to them, Melatiah, the Gibeonite, and Jadon, the Meranothite, the men of Gibeon and the men of Mizpah, the seat of the governor of the provinces beyond the river.

Next to them, Uziel, the son of Harahiah, goldsmiths, repaired. Next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumers, repaired, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. Next to them, Repiah, the son of Ur, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired.

Next to them, Judiah, the son of Harumph, repaired opposite his house. And next to him, Hatush, the son of Hashabiah, repaired. Melchiah, the son of Harim and Hashub, the son of Pahath Moab, repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens.

Next to him, Shalom, the son of Halohash, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. He and his daughters, Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah, repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the Dung Gate.

Machiah, the son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth HaKarim, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And Shalom, the son of Hosea, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate.

He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the King's Garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the City of David. After him, Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of, ruler of the district of Beth Zor, repaired to a point opposite the Tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool and as far as the House of the Mighty Men.

After him, the Levites repaired. Rehom, the son of Bani. Next to him, Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Kela, repaired for his district. After him, their brothers repaired. Bavai, the son of Hinnadad, ruler of half the district of Kela.

Next to him, Ezer, the son of Yeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section opposite the ascent to the armory at the buttress. After him, Baruch, the son of Zebai, repaired another section from the buttress to the door of the House of Eliashib, the high priest.

After him, Meramoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hekaz, repaired another section from the door of the House of Eliashib to the end of the House of Eliashib. After him, the priests, the men of the surrounding areas, repaired.

After them, Benjamin and Hashub repaired opposite their house. After them, Azariah, the son of Maaseah, son of Ananiah, repaired beside his own house. After him, Ben-Nui, the son of Hinnadad, repaired another section from the House of Azariah to the buttress and to the corner.

Palal, the son of Uzziah, repaired opposite the buttress and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard. After him, Padiah, the son of Parash, and the temple servants living on Ophel, repaired to a point opposite the water gate on the east side, on the east, in the projecting tower.

After him, the Tekarites repaired another section opposite the great projection tower, as far as the wall of Ophel. Above the horse gate, the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house. After them, Zadok, the son of Emer, repaired opposite his own house.

After him, Shemiah, the son of Shekeniah, the keeper of the gate, repaired. After him, Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zeloph, repaired another section. After him, Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, repaired opposite his chamber.

After him, Malchiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants opposite the muster gate and to the upper chamber of the end of the corner. Excuse me, the upper chamber of the corner.

And between the upper chamber of the corner and the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired. A fairly long reading, the entire chapter. That is our text this morning. Lord willing, you looked at the title that is in your bulletin for this morning's message, and that gives quite a bit away.

The title being, What's the Big Deal? It's just a wall. What's the big deal? Why so much text? Why so much time devoted to this wall? Well, this wall is no mere assemblage of wood and brick and mortar.

This is the wall surrounding Jerusalem. This is the wall surrounding that great city, which is no ordinary city. In fact, everything about this project, this rebuilding of this wall, everything about it is extraordinary.

The wall laid on the ground for years. Not a wall in any sense of the word, because it couldn't keep anything or anyone out. It was destroyed. It had been a symbol for all those years, for really over a century, since 586 B .C., when the Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem and knocked down this wall and sacked the temple.

It had laid there as a symbol of the awful judgment of the Lord that he had visited on that city's inhabitants because of their sin, because of their rebellions. It was a daily reminder for all those days, for all those years and decades and even centuries.

It was a reminder of the disgrace of their father's disobedience, and now, now, in Nehemiah chapter 3, so long later, with the chorus of their enemies' jeers ringing daily in their ears, holding fast to the good hand of the Lord upon them, this people trusts God, and they come together, and they work together to clean up the old and bring in the new.

What's the big deal? Isn't it just a wall like every other city, every other major city in the ancient Near East at the time had? No, Lord willing, by the time we finish this message, you will come away with me saying, no, it's not just a wall.

This wall is an extraordinary monument to God's faithfulness and his people's faith in him. This wall testifies to the truth of God's promises, adding to our assurance that our hope in Christ that is yet to be seen will, in fact, be seen.

This wall in history is proof to us today that God's promises are sure and certain, and that what God promises, God accomplishes, and that our labors in Christ are not in vain. They mean something. Is it just a wall?

Is that entire text that reads like an endless series of begats and begats, and he begat, so she begat, and then they begat, and there was another begat, and on it goes. Well, I don't make fun of those chronological genealogies.

They're there for a very important reason. But so often we just sort of glaze over when we see them, and we pass by them so quickly. We do a speed reading thing, even if we don't know how to speed read, and we get past it all because we won't get to the good stuff.

And so here in this wall, he worked next to, and next to him worked, and after him worked, and then they worked, and he repaired, and then next to him. What we have here, dear ones, is a fire brigade.

I don't know how many of you have seen the old cowboy movies where there's a fire in town, they have to set up a brigade, and somebody's pumping the water into the bucket, and then they hand the bucket to the next person, the next person, next person, until it finally gets to somebody who can throw the water under the fire.

And if there's one person who's more than an arm's length away from the person to his right and to his left, the whole brigade falls apart because the bucket has to go from one to the other. Like this wall, they're working shoulder to shoulder, next to him and after him, and next to him and after him, to get this whole wall built.

This monument to God's faithfulness, this monument to his people's faith, this monument to the truth of his promises, this monument to the assurance that we need to have, that we can have, that the histories that we have recorded in the Bible give us, for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This fortification to your faith, that your labors, that your work, that the bricks you set, and the mortar you put between them, is a labor that is not in vain. Now this chapter, more than just a series of after him and next to him and begot, no, it's worthy of deep consideration.

So I ask, was this just a wall? Was this just an ordinary wall with so much text devoted to it? Is it just a wall? We could ask then, is a Ferrari just a car? Was Michelangelo just a painter? The wall recorded as restored in Nehemiah 3 is ordinary.

Only if the city it guarded was ordinary. If the promises that that wall proved God to have kept were mundane, if the unity of purpose that raised it from the ashes in which it had languished for all this time, over a century, laying on the ground, if that is commonplace, that unity that raised it up, if that's a commonplace thing, if the heavenly realities of which the temple that it protected was a copy, can be a matter of nonchalance, if such success is seen daily with brothers working in the face of powerful, jeering, even snarling enemies, if God's good hand upon our efforts, if it deserves but a shrug of the shoulders, if all those things be true, then yes, we would agree that this is just a wall.

Just an ordinary assemblage of rock, and mortar, and wood, and bricks. No, but it was anything but that. It was anything but just an assemblage of stuff. And no more than this wall was just an ordinary wall is your service to the Lord ordinary, because it's not as much the work that we do.

It's not as much the bricks that we set in place as the Lord that we serve. It's God who is extraordinary, and this wall in Nehemiah 3 is a testament to that very fact. No, not an ordinary wall, any more than our service to the Lord's ordinary, not because of us, not because of what we actually do, but the Lord for whom we do.

Jerusalem as the City Where God Chose to Dwell

Let's think about the city. Let's think about the city that this wall was meant to protect. It was Jerusalem, and that's no ordinary city. That's no ordinary place. Think of when Jerusalem first comes into the scripture.

That's Genesis chapter 14. You needn't turn there, because I'm not going to read it to you. I'm just going to tell you very quickly. In Genesis chapter 14, Abraham got his 318 trained servants, and goes against these kings who had kidnapped his nephew Lot.

And he returns with some plunder, and he returns with everything he had stolen, and he meets this character who comes into the scripture mysteriously, Melchizedek, the king of Salem, which means the king of Jerusalem.

Melchizedek, this great type of Christ, this mysterious figure who comes in without father, without mother, without genealogy. So important in the record of the topology of the types we have of Christ Jesus.

Melchizedek was king of this city. It comes into the scripture in Genesis chapter 14. When Joshua led Israel into Canaan, they wanted this city. They wanted to take it from the Jebusites. They couldn't.

It was one of the few failures that Joshua had in his military expeditions in that land. King David's victory over them was a magnificent crescendo of God's goodness to him, and God's providence upon him, making him the great king.

It became the city of the great king. That's what Psalm 48 verse 2 calls it, the city of the great king, David's city. As important as any of this, if not more important, it was a city where God's name dwelt.

Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse 2 told the Israelites, you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. Where was that? Where was that? That was Jerusalem. Zechariah chapter 8 verse 3.

Thus says the Lord, I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. In Jesus's day, the Jews in his time would take oaths in the name of Jerusalem.

Have you ever wondered what that means? I swear by Jerusalem that I will do this. What sort of an oath is that? They didn't want to use God's holy name. And many Jews to this day won't even spell God.

They say G, capital G, dash D. And they won't use Yahweh because it's too holy a name. And Jews in that day would swear by Jerusalem. Why? It was tantamount to swearing by God because that's where God dwelt.

That's where God's name dwelt. They would substitute Jerusalem instead of using the name of God. Is this an ordinary city? This city that this wall that in Nehemiah 3 gets rebuilt, it's not an ordinary city in any sense of the word.

And so the wall is no ordinary wall. I want to talk about the city just a little bit more. Jesus wept over this city. He didn't weep over Nazareth. He didn't weep over Galilee or Tyre or Sidon. Matthew 23, 37, he says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not. Luke chapter 19, verse 41, and when Jesus drew near and saw the city, that's Jerusalem, he wept over it saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

Jerusalem is the city that that wall, that pile of brick and stone and lumber, protected. Jerusalem is the one of all the cities in all history on all the globe which one is promised to come down as a heavenly city.

It's only Jerusalem, the place where God's name dwells. The last eight chapters of the prophet Ezekiel are all about the restored temple, that temple which is ensconced within this wall. In Revelation 21, it's the heavenly Jerusalem that comes down prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

It is this city, this extraordinary city that's at the center of redemptive history. It is this city, Jerusalem, where we see in history the working out of the promise of God. Speaking to those who are in Christ, they shall be my people, and I will be their God, and I will dwell among them.

Do you not know that the Holy Spirit dwells among you? Do you not know that you are the temple of the living God, and the Spirit is with you, says the Apostle? All of that promised by this city, surrounded by this wall rebuilt in Nehemiah chapter 3.

You see the city and the temple that it was, that was within it, are intertwined as one in God's purposes, and come remade, Revelation 21, with the new order of the new creation. So is it just a city that this wall protected?

No, no more than a Ferrari is just a car, or Michelangelo is just a painter. No more than Jesus is just a good prophet, or a wise teacher. No, he's extraordinary, because he's the God-man. He's the only mediator between man and God.

Now no more than Ferraris are just cars, or any of those other illustrations. Is that city just a city? And so no more than that, could that wall just be an ordinary wall like all the other peoples had?

Jerusalem was the center of God's promise of cohabitation with his people, a promise that you today, if you believe in Christ Jesus our Lord, a promise that you today have, and are living out, even here in this place.

The wall within that, that surrounded that city, was surrounding no ordinary commonplace city. It was the city that promised that God will dwell with his people, where God's name dwelt, where God chose his name to be, where God had his people to be.

So it cannot be just an ordinary wall. Is it just a wall? What's the big deal? It guarded that extraordinary city. So the wall is no ordinary wall because of what it protected. Nobody would put a protective wall around something without value.

You'd end up spending more than the thing is worth that you're trying to protect. That would be ridiculous. Nobody would do that. The wall was there to protect a city that was precious. There was a center of God's purposes for his people.

No ordinary wall. You notice they were working shoulder-to-shoulder. We pointed that out, and I don't want you pulling out your smartphones now, but later on when we're not together, when I'm not preaching this message to you, look in your smartphone and find yourself a map of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah.

And you'll see how the circuit they make is all the way around the city, practically all the way around. That's why they're shoulder-to-shoulder. There were breaches everywhere. The wall had been completely destroyed, and even though there are parts of it that were still up, what good is a wall, especially in that day, with a single breach in it?

Like Shakespeare's Henry V, once more into the breach, you only needed one breach to take a city. See how many names I read to you in Nehemiah 3. See how many next to him, and after him, and next to him, and after him, shoulder-to-shoulder rebuilding this wall.

How many breaches were there? But think of this. This wall, this extraordinary wall, being built under these extraordinary circumstances. Think of the dread consequence of sin. Think of what is demonstrated by the fact that they have to work so tightly and so cooperatively together to raise this thing.

You'll recall we're in about the year 450 before Christ, 450 BC. And it was just over a century before that Babylon had come and destroyed that wall. So run that back in your mind and try to picture this, that you're in that city, and here the Babylonians coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and finally they make a break in the wall, and finally there's another break in the wall in another place, and the Babylonians are streaming in like Habakkuk pictures them.

Not moving side to side, coming straight at you. Destroying everything in sight, having no regard for the aged, or for the young, or for women. Those who weren't killed were taken into slavery. Think of the dread consequence of sin.

That this wall had been so completely destroyed because of God's fury, and then is raised up again. This pile of stuff is raised up again, and what do we see in that? This wall surrounding this extraordinary city, and the fact that it's raised up.

I had Jesus read to you from Acts chapter 15, and there when he says, speaks of raising up David's fallen tent, he's actually quoting Amos chapter 9 verses 11 and 12, and he's quoting it very directly.

Raising up David's fallen tent. This was the city of the great king. It was often called in Scripture, David's city, meaning King David. How fallen was his tent in that complete destruction of the wall, and how do we see God's promise to raise that tent up?

We see it in Nehemiah chapter 3. We see that when God said, I will raise up David's fallen tent. I will make good my promise. He did it. He did it here in what I read to you in Nehemiah chapter 3, and think of how important this is.

Think of what this gives to fortify our souls as we sojourn in this world, as we hold to the faith of the Christ Jesus our Lord. I would suggest to you that when Amos, before all this, said God says he will raise up David's fallen tent, God did, and going all the way forward to that Jerusalem council that Jesus read to you.

Ultimately, what does it mean? What's the final and ultimate and real meaning of all of that? The wall in Amos' prophecy? Well, it's nothing less important, or so unimportant, as the outflow of the gospel from Jew to Gentile to the entire world.

Think of what it means that that wall was built up according to the promises of God, and how James, in Acts chapter 15, gives the final meaning, the final reason God gave that prophecy, and raised up that wall in Nehemiah 3, and then in Acts 15 applies it to the gospel going out of the confines of Israel.

It means that God keeps his promises. It means that God is building his church. It means that Christ Jesus is this day building his church, and will indeed build it, and that wall, that wall stands as a testament that when God said, I will rebuild David's fallen tent, he did it, and he's rebuilding David's fallen tent through the explosion of the gospel out of Jerusalem, out of Judah, and into all lands.

The wall is a seal of God's promises. And it proves the truth of God's Word. The Apostle says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20, for all the promises of God find their yes and amen in him. Who is him?

It is Christ Jesus. That is, that is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. Do we believe that, church? That all the promises of Scripture, all the promises that God gives us are yes and amen in Christ Jesus.

He is the fulfiller. He is the bringer. He is the guarantee of all the promises we have, of our final hope, when he calls us to himself, is eternal life in him. Do we believe that? The Apostle Paul says it clearly in 2nd Corinthians 1 verse 20.

I tell you, I tell you, the wall proves it, because God raised up that wall. And James, by the Holy Spirit, gives us its final meaning. It's the gospel. It's the gospel. Now, it's not an ordinary wall any more than Jerusalem was an ordinary city.

It couldn't be an ordinary city, or I should say the other way, it could only be an ordinary city if an ordinary God chose to dwell there. Do we serve an ordinary God? Just one of a pantheon of deities?

Of course not. The one true and living God, his name dwelling in that place, as a sign and a seal of his dwelling with you today, with us today, now in the church, and by his Spirit. They built this wall while enemies jeered at them.

I added the word snarled. The Scripture doesn't say snarled, but it's the way I picture it. Sort of an exaggerated thing, like a wolf-like face, salivating, just drooling for a chance to go and attack these Jews building this wall.

This chapter is actually a little bit out of order, because what happens at the end of chapter 2 is when Sambalat and Tobiah and their friend Geshem are all jeering the Jews as they build, and making accusations against them.

And Nehemiah answers and says, the God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build. But you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. And then immediately he gives us chapter 3, as though that wall was built.

And then chapter 4, we're going to find out some of the things that happened during the building. So it's chronologically a little out of order. But the placement of the events is very intentional. So we know that enemies were jeering at them the whole time, threatening them.

These men, Sambalat, Tobiah, and Geshem, all of whom were testified outside of Scripture, though we don't need it outside of Scripture. If the Bible says it, it's true. But all these men were powerful, and they had Artaxerxes, the king's ear.

They could cause real trouble. And while they're causing this trouble, what is going on? This wall's being built. While Satan is doing all to resist the work of God's people, God by His Spirit is having us build the wall.

Enemies jeering all the time. Enemies surround the church. Last week in the February 7th issue of the Washington Post, a man named Richard Cohen, I'm not going to quote him at any length, but he was making the case that Christianity in and of itself, just because it believes in the Bible, is a bigoted belief system.

That we must be haters because of certain things that he draws out of the Scripture, which were incorrect. Do you know how easily the world falls into that pattern? I would suggest to you that that is the enemies jeering at us, the enemy giving us that reputation, saying we must hate because I live my life this way.

No, we don't hate. You must hate me because I'm of this ethnicity or this other type. No, we don't hate on any of those bases. But the enemy would have them believe that we do. Would lump us together with all other of the bad gyrations of different views of the Bible and different belief systems that are yanked out of it in order to satisfy man's sinful nature.

That's the enemy jeering as we're building up this church, even here in this place this day. All the world is against Christian progress, yours and mine, and we mustn't let the jeers of the enemy discourage us.

These people stayed shoulder-to-shoulder, and while this was happening, while the enemy was actively working against them, this wall came up. Because they were magnificent people? No, they're pretty ordinary.

Because the extraordinary God whose good hand was with them. We can't let the enemy pull us apart. We can't let the enemy make our spirits shrink in the face of his adversarial accusations. Not compared to the work that we do for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not compared to the good hand of God that is with us as we work in Christ's name. No, we can't let him pull us away from our Lord and the work he has us doing. He's always looking to devour someone by causing disunity, especially between husbands and wives, but also within the church.

We have loved ones who don't believe, and the enemy jeers. He whispers, see, even your brother or your sister doesn't believe this silliness. What a waste of time you're doing. Our friends walk away, and the enemy snarls at us and says, see, you're more and more isolated.

So withdraw yourself from this. Spend less time. Pray not. Paul dealt with this in 1 Thessalonians 3 .5. He said, for this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.

Is this not what the tempter has always done, to draw us away from this up-building of Christ's church, which he is building through us? Is this not perfectly pictured in Nehemiah 3, the end of chapter 2, Nehemiah 3, in the building, and Lord willing, soon we get to chapter 4, and the details of the enemy's attacks.

Now Paul is terribly concerned that they might think their labor to be in vain. And so we acknowledge how hard it is when we hear these attacks, when we hear these accusations, these falsehoods, things that we don't hold to, and yet are attributed to us.

Know this, know that God knows how hard it is for us to bear up under it. And is that not why he gives us his Spirit, so that we can bear up? Is that not why he gives us his Word, so we can read of people who, like us, people just as weak, or just as strong, or just as smart, or just as not smart, people just like us, believing the good hand of the Lord was with them, built.

And no less today, the tempter will tempt us away. And yet we have the means to resist, as they did. We have the means to build in the face of the attack, as they did, and yet how much more so? Because they had Nehemiah, and we talked about, again, we talked a week or so ago about how he showed them that the good hand of the Lord was really upon him, that God had really sent them to do this with them and through them.

And what do we have? We have the Spirit. We have God's Word. We have Christ Jesus dwelling among us. All the promises of God being fulfilled here in this place. Our labors are not in vain as we stay together with our Lord.

As our head, 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it labor in vain.

Who's building this house? It sure isn't me. I don't believe it's any of you. I believe with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Your labor is not in vain. Think of the book of Revelation, the letters to the churches.