If God Is For Us, Nothing Can Stop Us

Good morning. For our scripture reading today, we'll be turning first to Psalm 119 and starting in verse 53, going to 160, and then we'll be turning to the book of Romans.

So Psalm 119, verse 153 can be found in your Black Pew Bible on page 516.

Psalm 119, when you have found page 516, please stand for the reading of God's word, if you are able.

This is the word of the Lord. Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.

Plead my cause and redeem me. Give me life according to your promise. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.

Great is your mercy, O Lord. Give me life according to your rules. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies.

I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. Consider how

I love your precepts. Give me life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Turning now to page 944 in your Black Pew Bible, we'll be reading from Romans 8, beginning in verse 26.

944, Romans 8, 26. Likewise, the

Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the

Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love

God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own

Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus, the one who died. More than that, who was raised.

Who is at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Please be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we lift up your holy and glorious name today.

We thank you for the brothers and sisters assembled here, and we thank you for our faithful preacher, Josh. Be with us,

Lord, just as you have sent the rains to us recently to refresh this earth. Also send your Holy Spirit, your deuterous power into our hearts.

Open up the eyes of our hearts so that we can see the preaching of the word, the word and your good, gracious nature through this word, so that we will be refreshed also, that we can be closer to the image of your

Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would know him, that in your goodness we can discern his will individually for our lives and as a group, corporately, that we would not come from this place unchanged, but that by the preaching of your word, we would have your grace in our hearts.

Be with our pastor as you deliver from him unction from on high, that he would preach faithfully and with power, and that we would see you clearly today and grow in your image.

In Jesus' name, amen. We're turning your

Bibles, if you would, please, to Nehemiah 4. We looked this morning at verses 1 through 9 of Nehemiah 4 as we continue working our way through this historical book.

Nehemiah 4, beginning at verse 1. Now when Simbalat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the

Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble

Jews doing? Will they restore for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day?

Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burn ones at that?

Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, yes, what they're building, if a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.

Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.

Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

So he built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

But when Simbalat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry.

And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.

And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

Last week, we covered chapter 3 of Nehemiah, which talked about how the wall was actually built.

And you recall, it was the shoulder to shoulder, everybody working towards the same goal, the same purpose, confident in the

Lord, and they built the wall. And now in chapter 4, Nehemiah, as it were, looks back upon that completed project that we had in chapter 3, and relates to us some of the things that went on while that was happening, while they were building.

The question that this text asks of us, I should say demands of us, is what can bring a halt to the will of God?

What can thwart God's will? I asked that on a Sunday morning. I stand before believers in Jesus Christ.

So the answer I would expect to a question like that is something like, well, nothing in heaven or on earth can thwart the will of God or his purposes, a true and faithful answer.

So I want to change that question just a little bit about thwarting the will of God. And I want to find the answer in this morning's text for us.

So let's rephrase the question this way. What do we let thwart the will of God?

What do we allow to change the direction of our life, which when we know we're going the way we should go, we're following the scripture and then things get in the way.

The thorns and the weeds, as Jesus spoke of in the parable, come up and they cloud our vision. And we focus in on the things of this world and get off course from where we should be going.

What do we let, what do we allow to thwart the will of God for ourselves as individuals who believe in Christ Jesus and for us together as a church?

This requires some introspection. If God's will for us, for example, in 1

Thessalonians 4, 3, chapter 4, verse 3, it says God's will for you is your sanctification, your sexual purity.

Why then are our thoughts so often impure? Why are our actions so often following our thoughts?

If God's will is that loving husbands have respectful and obedient wives, how is this command so easily trampled underfoot?

What do we let get in the way of the will of God? And I think this text in Nehemiah asks that question.

As these people in the face of these enemies would not let them with their taunts and the dangers and the swords gleaming in the sun as they threatened them, they would not let it get in the way of what they were determined was the will of God.

And we spoke about how they knew that in previous messages. I don't want to recast all that. The will of God, the purpose of God in the rebuilding of the wall, it was a settled matter for them.

And what did they let get in the way of it? Nothing. And the question asks us, we who believe in Christ Jesus, we some four and a half centuries after this historical event that I just read to you, who have the

Spirit of God residing within. The question resounds all the more intensely.

What do we let in? What do we allow to get us off the course?

There's a pattern to those nine verses I read to you. And it's worth just a moment to examine, to talk about, to think about, because I think it's a pattern that is replete throughout the scripture.

In fact, it's the way I look at the book of Revelation called the idealistic approach. And I'm not going to go into detail about that, but it says that there's just a recurring constant pattern throughout all redemptive history.

And it works like this. In these nine verses, you have enemies met with prayer and a return to the work.

Enemies met with prayer and a return to the work. Jesus, in his 40 days of temptation,

I believe he was tempted for 40 days. Enemy is

Satan. Met with prayer, or in Jesus' case, the word of God, and a return to the work of the gospel for which his father sent him.

Many other examples we can find like that. And I think they're here in these nine verses.

I just want you to see for a moment that the enemy shows up in verses one through three. That's the taunts that were hurled at them by Sambalat and his friends.

That's the enemy, verses one through three. Met with prayer in verses four and five.

And then a return to the work in verse six. So we built the wall. And then verse seven, the enemies again met with prayer and a return to the work.

What is it that allows us to staunch our part in the work of the

Lord? What is it that we allow to get us off course? These may seem like odd questions to ask of a passage that is just pure history.

Have you thought that? As I've been introducing this, say, but pastor, this is just history. Doesn't this just tell us what happened?

Isn't that why it's in there? So we can understand what happened. Why not tell us what happened?

Why not tell us what the text relates directly and be done with it? And if that thought is yours, you're about to be satisfied.

Because I have a sentence for you. Here's a sentence. And I forced myself to construct this sentence without hyphens or semicolons.

I'm going to tell you what happened here in Nehemiah four, one through nine. In the face of deadly opposition under Nehemiah's confident and prayerful leadership,

Judah rebuilds the broken wall around Jerusalem. Those are the facts. Those are just the facts that Sergeant Joe Friday would have appreciated.

But there's more to it than that. And as Paul tells us, these scriptures, these histories were given to us so that we could find encouragement, so that we can find ourselves, so we can find our present situation addressed.

There are now, have always been, and until the Lord's return, will always be enemies to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are now, at this moment, and as scripture makes so clear, ever since the garden in Genesis chapter three, there will be enemies.

There will be those who hate the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judah was actually surrounded.

They were actually surrounded by enemies. Symbolic north, Tobiah to the east, the

Ammonites and the Ashdodites to the west, and the Arabs to the south. Literally surrounded by enemies.

Surrounded by those who knew not God, who don't know anything of the gospel that was to come then, or in our day, the gospel on which we stand now.

Surrounded. Now, you who know me know my love for military history.

I'm sort of a buff, and so that's where I find a lot of my illustrations. There was a lieutenant general in the Marines in the

Korean War named Chesty Puller. Still the highest decorated Marine ever. And when he found his one division surrounded by the entire

Chinese army, you remember what he said? I think I've used this before. He said to his officers, well, this makes our job a lot easier.

Because we know where they are. They knew who their enemy was. They knew where their enemy was.

The Jews building the wall in Jerusalem. They knew where they were. The scripture makes clear that Sambalat said these words, these taunts, these jeers.

He was standing in front of his army. They knew where they were. I need to ask right now, do we?

I saw some heads nod when I said we're surrounded as they were by those who know not God, and those who actually actively hate him, and most especially the gospel of his son,

Jesus Christ. But do we really know who the enemy is? We're not

General Pulley's Marines. We can't fire in all directions and know that we'll hit an enemy. They, like the wall builders, could see their enemies.

I suggest to you that we cannot. We cannot. You see, when we have that person come up to us and deride our faith, when you have that one in the office who teases you because you're so silly as to believe in Jesus Christ, I suggest to you that that is not really your enemy.

That is not really your opponent. Now, they are in sin if they're against us because we're for God. And if God be for us, who can be against us?

Which is why I had Ken read that. But you see, the persons themselves are only a shadow of the reality.

They're only a shadow. They're only the slight vapor of what's really happening. As irritating as they can be, as discouraging as their words are, and they are irritating, and their words are discouraging, there are just a hint of what, or I should say who, is really behind it all.

Do we know who the enemy is? I said that there's this pattern throughout Scripture, and we see this here in these verses.

The enemy and his attacks met with prayer and a return to gospel obedience.

Or in that case, a return to the wall and its construction. But I want to be sure so that we don't go off in all directions, shooting blindly as it were, that we know who the enemy really is.

I think you all know where I'm heading, but I want you to see it in Scripture. So turn in your Bibles to chapter 6 of Ephesians.

And read just a few verses from chapter 6, starting at verse 10. There are enemies.

We're surrounded by them. And we will be until Jesus comes back and makes all things right.

And here in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, we're going to see the reality. Now before I read it,

I want you to hear that again. This is reality. Do you remember

Elisha's servant, when the Syrian army came and surrounded that city, and they were all there to take

Elisha, that one prophet? And his servant said, Alas, my Lord, for we're surrounded.

What are we going to do? And Elisha prayed to God, said, open his eyes that he can see.

And then he saw the chariots of fire all around Elisha. Do you remember that story, that history? What did he see?

It was like a dream? Was it just some visual effect? No, he saw reality.

The Syrian army was only a picture of what was real. Now to Ephesians 6, with that in mind, with the wall in mind, with enemies all around these wall builders doing the will of God.

Listen to these words from the apostle Paul. Finally, be strong in the

Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Who's our enemy? Who's the enemy in view there? Clearly, the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Who is our enemy? Who is the one we need to contest? Is it that co -worker?

The one who entices you to use a pronoun? That today is the fad that must be offensive?

And you know, just as a quick excursus, a quick aside, offense itself today has become sort of a religion.

It's got rules enough to turn a Pharisee's brain into knots. We're almost back to the days of the medieval church, which could force secular authorities to carry out their ecclesiastical sentences.

So if you violate the religion of offense today, what happens?

Well, you don't even get to work. You don't even get to take care of your family. You can't even live here. You're ostracized.

Now they have a religion. It really is the religion of offense. So you can put a capital O on that.

But as the co -worker who entices you and traps you to violate the precepts of that religion, is that really, is he or she really the enemy?

Who's the enemy? Don't fire blindly. Don't beat at the air, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 .27.

Know who to take aim at. Who is it? Who is the one who's behind all this?

Why was son Balaam and Tobiah taunting and jeering and threatening the Jews who were doing the will of God and building that wall?

Who's the real enemy? Who makes our gospel so hard to force outside these walls?

And have some impact for lost souls in other places? The cosmic powers over this present darkness.

I just read it from Ephesians 6. The devil. Only too happy when we waste our energy on his hapless puppets.

I think Nehemiah, sort of like General Pulley, had an advantage because he knew just where they were.

He could see them. There was no doubt. That's the enemy. I think sometimes we miss the point a little bit when we look at the person and we see that person as the one

I need to defeat. You as a Christian, we as a church are faced with enmity all around.

But usually they're hidden by some degrees of separation. We read the derision of our faith in the newspapers.

We hear it in the news. We hear on the internet the statements of some politicians from the state all the way up to the federal level.

And even though they don't say directly, well, we hate Jesus Christ, no one would come out yet and say that so explicitly.

And yet we know that that's behind it. We read and hear activists and leaders despising the faith, hating what we believe and who we are, which is

Jesus' followers. And as distant as they usually are, the degrees of separation that we have from them because we're watching on the

TV or on the internet or hearing them on the radio, we're separated from them.

It's still discouraging. Make us feel small. Make us feel helpless or surrounded.

How do we handle this? Well, the first thing is to know who the enemy really is.

I've made that clear. Who is the enemy? It's not really the person. It's the one behind the person.

It's the one for whom they're being the spokesman, whether they know it or not. And that's the accuser. That's Satan.

That's when we call the devil. But what do we do then? If we identify the enemy correctly, if we know who they are,

As General Pooley said, this makes our job easier now, a little bit easier maybe.

What do we do? Brethren, you must pray. This is what we see in this history.

This is why it was recorded—for our encouragement, for our endurance— so we can see that what we are experiencing here is no different.

It's been going on for centuries and it shall until Jesus comes back. Brethren, you must pray.

You must pray and pray at the right target. Ephesians 6 .18, praying at all times in the

Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and with all perseverance make supplication for all the saints.

Saints, we must pray. As they did then, so you must today meet the assault with prayer.

You must meet it with prayer. Now understand that an argument with somebody is not a prayer.

You may win the point, but it's not a prayer. I ask you, would you reason with a symbolic, frothing at the mouth, apoplectic with rage, about to pass out because of his resentment, he's consumed by hatred of God, and you're going to go to this one and answer him according to his folly?

You're going to make this one sane? God can.

I would suggest that very few of us can, if any at all. But an argument to win the debate, to blast away his reasons and to show his illogic or whatever the case may be, that is not a prayer.

That is not the weapon that Paul commands the church to employ against the enemy.

No, don't answer the fool according to his folly. I have nothing against apologists.

I love apologists, those people who can put together and frame their argument in ways that make such sense and at least leave the unbeliever, that enemy, wondering.

I really appreciate that, but what is the weapon that Paul gives us here? It's prayer.

No, don't answer the fool according to his folly. Don't fire a BB gun to seek a battleship.

2 Corinthians 10, verse 4 says, The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Paul was a wonderful apologist. Read his sermons, read especially in Acts 17, what

Paul said at the Areopagus. That man knew how to frame an argument. That man knew how to knock down your stronghold.

But what does he command us all? To be able to do what he did?

No. That's a gift. The church needs men with that gift, employing that gift.

But what we're all commanded to do is to pray. God has equipped us, he's equipped you with the power of God himself.

The weapons of our warfare are not flesh, but have divine power. Have godly power, have heavenly power infused by the spirit of God.

That they are powerful, they are effective, they are meaningful. God's equipped us,

God's equipped you. Just as they prayed in the face of the enemies, here in Nehemiah 4, which we read, so the church must pray.

Jesus taught us to pray on earth as it is in heaven. Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

How is that? That is by prayer. Jesus gave it to us in the model prayer, as we call it.

In the disciples prayer, as some others call it. It's the prayer that Jesus gave us. On earth as in heaven.

Remember the cycle. Enemy aggression, then prayer. Son Bala taunted, Nehemiah prayed.

They regrouped and attacked again. Nehemiah with his fellows prayed. The first prayer that we have from Nehemiah here,

O God, hear O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.

Do not cover their guilt. Let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

That's called an imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is the kind of prayer that seeks

God's justice now against our enemies who are there now. Now there is a place for this.

And this prayer, this type of prayer, this is your prayer. Because it's given to you in the scriptures that God gave to us.

They're all over in the Psalms. If you read David's prayers against his enemies, he's imprecatory prayers, accusing them of their sin against him and calling on God to judge it.

That's imprecatory. We have them in the prophets. We even have it in the

New Testament. Precatory prayers are yours. You may use them. There's a place for this.

The insults we bear for Jesus' sake are seen by God as insults against him. Asking God to judge now follows

Nehemiah. Many of David's prayers in the Psalms, they're yours to pray. But as Christians, as believers in Christ Jesus, there is another way.

There's another way. I don't take away the imprecatory prayers. But as I said about the apologist in the street, the debates, that's fine and that has its place.

But what are you commanded to do? You're commanded to pray. And you may pray an imprecatory prayer if you wish.

And if it's appropriate. But what kind of prayer are you commanded to pray? Of which kind of prayer is there no doubt

You, the church, are called to. Matthew chapter 5, verse 43.

Here's what Jesus commands us. You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your

Father who is in heaven. You can just look at this and think forward just very quickly.

Did not Jesus pray, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Praying for those persecuting him.

Just as one very quick example, but a very meaningful one. The apostle

Paul demanded no less from the church of Rome. That church that was in the very center of worldliness.

To Silicon Valley in, oh excuse me, no it was Romans. But it may as well be

Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale. Romans 12, 14. Bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them. Once more, just for clarity.

Imprecatory prayers are yours because they're everywhere in the Bible. They're yours.

This prayer, this prayer of blessing and blessing upon those who persecute.

Love your enemies. Those are commanded. Those are not optional.

It's a difficult weapon to wield. Anyone can arm themselves with ego and pride and then enter into the fray, but can you love?

Can you love? Why would Jesus say that? Why would

Jesus give us a command like that? I think it's what we're getting at a bit here as we look at Nehemiah 4, 1 -9.

Why do you love your enemy? Why do we bless them when they persecute us? Because they're ultimately not the enemy.

It's the one behind them. It's the one they're speaking for, know it or not, that is truly the enemy.

Now, we don't have like a sledgehammer that we're rolling around our head and just throwing out there and seeing who we can hit.

We have a martial appliance and it's something that demands much practice.

This prayer, this loving prayer towards those who are persecuting, do they know what they're doing?

Do they realize that when they insult your faith, as weak as it may be, as small an ember as it may have, do they know who they're really insulting?

Ken read to you from chapter 8 of Romans. It is Christ who died.

It is He, God's Son, who died for you. It is He who paid the price for your sin.

It is God, because of His Son, who forgave you. How dare anyone insult the faith that you have in a gospel like that?

Love that person. Love that person. They don't know what they're doing.

Imprecatory prayer holds the person responsible. It delivers and entrusts them to God's justice.

Jesus would have us pray with love. Pray that God would hold them responsible for their sin.

Is that imprecatory? We can pray the gospel. We can pray, yes,

God, show them their sin. Yes, God, show them their sin and how awful it is.

Show them their sin and how hurtful those words against me were, and how hard it is for me to know that they became my enemy because I love

Jesus Christ. Show them their sin, Father, and show them Jesus Christ.

Show them the forgiveness that you have for those who put their faith and trust and hope in Him.

Yes, let us pray that God would take note of their sin and place it on Christ, that their sin might be covered.

Christian, when enemies surround you, when they surround us, when they jeer at you, and when they jeer at us, when they take the very heart out of you and make you feel small and feeble,

I say pray. Pray for them. Pray for yourself. When the enemy shows himself as the symbolic

Tobiah and all these others did, what did Nehemiah do, this strong, charismatic, determined, godly leader?

Prayed. He prayed in church. We have the gospel that he didn't have yet.

We have the Spirit dwelling in us. Let us be a church.

Let us be Christians that pray when these things come upon us. We can admit freely that the problem with the jeers and the insults is they really do hurt.

And too often, our enemy puts words in their mouths that strike us where it does the most damage. Forgive, again, my military illustrations, but in World War II, the modern

German battleship Bismarck encountered two British battleships, the modern, the brand -new

Prince of Wales and the pride of the British fleet, the HMS Hood. And after five minutes of exchanging fire, a shell from the

Bismarck pierced through the armor of the Hood and the ship blew up. Gone.

Just disintegrated. Fourteen hundred and thirty -eight men died. Three men survived.

And sometimes those insults, sometimes those jeers, sometimes those little pats on the head, it isn't that nice you believe in a

Jesus, are like that. It's like a shell hitting us right where it hurts the most and driving us off the path.

I asked at the beginning, what do we let get us off the course? What do we let for God's will in us and for us?

Oftentimes, it's that one shell, that one word. Have you ever known that person who can just kind of find your weak point?

Find that thing that's going to bug you most. And sometimes it's that point of faith, that point of obedience to Christ where you know you're weakest, where maybe you just failed yesterday.

And then the enemy, I mean the real enemy, I mean the enemy behind the person who almost helplessly speaks his words against you, just finds that one niggling little point and draws you away because he ruins your confidence, makes you forget this

Jesus who saved you, makes you forget if God before us, who can be against us. Tobiah called out, what are these feeble

Jews doing? Yes, what they're building, if a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.

Do you hear the enemy's taunts? Powerful to hurt. Big words, hard to hear words, but God is bigger than all that.

God is a bigger gospel -giving God than all of that. From the reading earlier, Romans 8, 26 -39, what does it say?

It says that God will hear no charges against his elect. It's an insult to him to make a charge against one for whom his son died.

It is Christ who died. It is he who paid the sin price to God. And now, as the hymn says, justice smiles and asks no more.

Condemning accusations are actually blasphemies. They didn't so much insult me as they say that Jesus' death wasn't powerful to save me, or this gospel has no power to transform me.

Think of them that way. Think of them that way when we pray for our enemies.

You say, what are these feeble Jews doing? I ask you, have you ever heard someone say, what are these feeble

Christians doing? What are you, feeble Christian, doing? What do you think you're doing?

You answer, why? I'm growing into the image of Jesus. I am progressing into holiness. And then you're accused and you're reminded of all your failures.

There's not one who does not sin. That's what Solomon said. Your answer has to be that Christ had died for me.

And what's more, Christ whom the Father raised. And you can say, oh yes, I am feeble. What are these feeble

Jews doing? Something as light and sure -footed as a little fox is going to knock this whole wall over.

What are you doing, feeble Christian? You put your shoulder next to that other grand

Christian next to you, and you're going to be the breach in the wall, and the whole thing's going to collapse.

What do you think you're doing? Oh, this isn't going to last. Look at who you are. You can answer back, say, oh yes, you're right.

I am feeble. I am like the army of Saul that was told to march without food in that impetuous order that he gave.

I am feeble. And if I build on this wall, yes, it won't support even a light -footed fox because of me, because of my incompetence.

Yes, son Balit, you're completely correct, but you forget, or maybe you never knew, it's God's wall.

It's God's wall. It is He who put it on Nehemiah's heart. It is He who turned the king's heart to support the job.

It is He who is building this wall using feeble me to do it. It is

Jesus who is building this church. It is Jesus who is using feeble me who could be knocked over by something as small as a fox.

And what does all that prove? That I'm useless? That I'm incompetent? That I'm just feeble and small and inconsistent and unfaithful and all these things?

No. What does it prove? It proves that God is faithful.

It proves that God is powerful. It proves that God's will is good.

It is God who works in you to will and to do for His good pleasure. It is Jesus building

His church, and how is He building it? Through us. Yes, feeble? I can accept that, but not of my

God, not of my Jesus, not of this gospel on which we stand. Pray, loved ones.

Pray. The wall stood on the brink of disaster. The Jews had to become a nation again.

Think of how important this really is here. What Nehemiah is doing. Is it a wall so that they could protect themselves against enemies?

Yes. Do the gates have to go up so that they can control the Sabbath commerce? Yes. But that is so minor.

That is so small compared to what this wall really was. The Jews had to become a nation again.

In Nehemiah's time, the Lord's advent was some 450 years yet to come. Why did that wall have to be built?

That wall had to be built so that the temple would still be there for Jesus as a baby to be brought by Joseph and Mary so that the law of Moses could be fulfilled in Him.

That is why the wall had to be built. Why did that wall have to be built?

Because it was God's will that that city, Jerusalem, would be enclosed by a wall so that as Jesus would enter into one of the gates,

He would stop and weep over that city. The wall had to be built so the city would be there for Jesus to weep over.

Those gates had to be rebuilt so that the true King, who is Jesus, could enter in on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

What can thwart God's will? What should throw you off the path?

Think of where you stand in redemptive history. This wall had to be built so that Jesus could go in and out of that wall into that city and see that temple that would still be there.

This is the Jesus who died for you. This is the Jesus that God sent so that you could be here building this place.

You feeble person. Useless, inconsistent, like all of us?

Sure. I can accept that as long as we add to that a rejoinder that, but God is so much bigger.

That Christ is so much more powerful. That's why that wall is important.

What are we building? We're building this church. I don't mean just this church.

I mean this church here in this place? Yes. I mean the church, the entire body of Christ that stands as a beacon of light for His goodness?

Yes. How did they finish the wall?

They finished by prayer. They finished by prayer and then to work, brimming with confidence in the

Lord. And so I close this message and I say to you, knowing that we're surrounded by enemies and knowing who the real enemy is and let that direct our prayer so there's enemies and they must be met with prayer.

If you pray and you rise from your knees and you're still shaken, if you close the door to your prayer closet and you're still stinging at the insults that I say, go back, go back down on your knees, close that door again, you haven't yet prayed because prayer is not just words.

It's a spiritual exercise whereby you encounter Almighty God and if you leave prayer in the same condition you entered, return and seek

God again. And know that you have met with Him and come out in the confidence and the strength of Him, of the

Lord. And then, and with this we close, get back to work. They saw their enemies.

They heard their taunts. There is the army of the Samaritans. Excuse me.

There's some question amongst the commentators and scholars whether that was a Persian army or Samaritan militia, but in either case, they're close by.

They're right there. You just see them shaking, waiting for the order to go and slaughter.

Swords and spears gleaming in the sun, quivering with anticipation for which heart they might pierce.

They prayed. Nehemiah, the first time, it seems like he's praying himself.

The second time, excuse me, back in verse 9, it seems like they all prayed together, but in any case, the jeers, the enmity was met with prayer.

And then, back to work. With confidence in self? No. With confidence in God who sends you back to work.

And that's what these people did with armed hostility right there in front of them. So when enemies overwhelm you, when your faith teeters on the edge of disaster, when your personal son,

Balit, usually he's someone we know, often, too often, he is myself, whispering from within my own spirit, my own unworthiness, when this son,

Balit, comes at you, pray. And after you've prayed, back to work.

Back on that wall. Back on that course towards holiness without which no one will see the

Lord. Pray when you see the enemies.

Your son, Balit, is constantly calling out your incompetence. He reminds you how miserably you fail.

Loved ones, that's just the point. That's exactly the point. Jesus succeeds where we fail.

He succeeded where Adam failed. He succeeded where Israel failed. He succeeded where King David failed.

You see, it's not about you or me and your failure or my successes or vice versa.

It's about Christ. It's about Christ Jesus. It's never been about you. Never been about me. It's always been about Him.

Don't let these insecurities draw you off the course.

If you do that, do you know what we're saying? It sounds so humble. I can't work.

I can't put my shoulder next to Him because I'm just not worthy. Do you know what that is? I say it plainly.

That's conceit. That's sheer arrogance because it says it depends on me.

No. It's not about you and your abilities or lack thereof.

It's about Christ. It's about Christ Jesus. So, when the enemies overwhelm, when they bring harm to you and draw you off the course, when you find that they're thwarting

God's will in you and for you, pray. Pray until you're reminded it is

Christ Jesus who died. It's Christ Jesus who was resurrected. And it's all about Him and His ability.

Be strong in the weaponry of the Lord and His strength. And then back to work.

Ignoring your son, whether he screams at you from within or someone you know from without.

Your or my lack of worth does not remove our responsibility to continue to build, to face down our enemy with the divine weaponry that Christ gives us.

So there's no excuses. With life and limb on the line, enemies on every side, their weapons glittering in the sun, soldiers' hands at the ready to draw, legs shaking in anticipation, ordered to charge, building a wall that a fox could topple.

In the face of all this, they built. And did a fox topple that wall? No. 450 years later,

Jesus went in and out of the gates that were in that wall. Not a feeble wall that a fox could knock down, but a wall that was the very one that God decreed.

They prayed, they trusted, they worked. May God be pleased to grant us that same confidence in Him as we work together and build

Christ's church. Know who the enemy is and pray for those that He brings into our path.

Pray for those that He entices to bring harm to us. And then church, back to work.

Amen? Heavenly Father, do help us to pray aright.

Do help us, Father, to know who the enemy truly is, but to look to You, Father, for our strength, and to look to You, Father, to arm us, to withstand the ultimate enemy's wiles.

I pray, Father, that we would be a church that works together, building up Your kingdom from within us, for each individual, and for all of us as a body.

Lord, do that work in us and through us that only You can do. We thank You for these things in Christ's name.