Let's read a little in the first chapter of the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 1. In the Hebrew scriptures, Ezra and Nehemiah form a unit. They are all really the same story. And you have a different emphasis. In Ezra, the emphasis is on the temple. In Nehemiah, the emphasis is on the city and the building of the walls. As I say, these two things go together. I'd be tempted to take the time to even apply the sort of dynamic that rests between them. The emphasis on the temple. The worship before the work. There's a very simple lesson there for us, even as we come to pray. Worship before work. You can't have worship without working. An awful lot of people make that mistake. Worship is an experience. And that's why you have all the rock music and all the rest to make people feel good. That's not worship. That's carnal. Merely fleshly and no more than skin deep. You can't have true worship without work. But if you try to work, except on the basis of true worship, then your work is going to be meaningless. At best, it's going to be legalistic, and it's certainly going to be ineffectual. Worship and work. Ezra, Nehemiah. It's not an exact or absolute division. You'll find work in Ezra and you'll find worship in Nehemiah. I'm simply saying these are the major emphases of the two parts of this common work. Ezra and Nehemiah. So keep that in mind and let us learn that tonight. The fear of the Lord. And in the Old Testament, the fear of the Lord is in many cases synonymous with the worship of the Lord. To fear the Lord is to worship the Lord. The Lord was given as a title. He was called the Fear of Isaac. He was the object of Isaac's reverential worship. That gives you an insight into what worship is all about, by the way. You'll see I haven't even got to start to read yet. But it gives you an insight into what worship is all about. Worship is not a foot stomping time where we've got banjos and all the rest of it going and we're having a hoopla or we think we're at a barn dance. Now, I would not for a minute deny that you can have a church service with all this going on. And of course, it doesn't have to be that. You can have high class music. It makes you feel great. I do not deny that people can feel great as the result of various things like this, but I'm saying it's nothing to do with worship. Worship and the fear of God cannot be divorced. The fear of God recognizes the holiness of God. It recognizes the character and the person of God. It stands in awe of God. That's where it all starts. And I trust tonight as we come to read and pray, that's where we'll start. And on that basis, then we can proceed to the work. Remember that was our motto text at the beginning of the year. The command was work. The encouragement was my spirit remains among you. Fear not. So with that confidence, then let's come to read a little in this first chapter of the book of Nehemiah. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, that came to pass in the month Kisliu in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came to me, he and certain men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. What Nehemiah was asking about here was first about the people. During the years before the captivity, there were, as you read in the book of Jeremiah, there were numbers of Jews that actually escaped. Many of them ended up in Egypt. Numbers of Jews escaped. There was a remnant, poor and scattered. No doubt over the years, some had drifted back. And Nehemiah was asking, what is their condition? What's the state of the people of God? Now, when you put it that way, that's a very big question. It's a very timely question as we come the beginning of another year. Let us ask the question regarding this congregation. And let us ask the question regarding you and regarding me. What is the state of God's people? I'm going to make a very, very blunt and downright statement. Forget about asking the question first about the state of God's people as a body. Because I'll tell you what will happen. You and I are both Pharisees by nature. Everybody's a Pharisee by nature. And the Pharisee is always wanting to stand back and say, I thank you, I am not as other men. I'm this, I'm that, I'm the other. But you see that fellow? Or that bunch of people? Or they? You know that nebulous body that are always them versus me or us? Now there's a lot wrong with them. So if you start the question, what's the state of God's people? What's the state of the body? Undoubtedly, that's the way you'll end up. A hypocrite pointing fingers. Now that's blunt. I said I'd be blunt. And I'm speaking to me as much as I'm speaking to you. Where we start is, what is the state of God's people? Let me start now, what is my state? What is my condition? Spiritually, where am I? Am I where I should be? Not one of us can say yes. Am I where I was? Now, I'm not a big one for living in the past. and saying, let's go back and say we've always got to recreate some experience of the past. That's self-defeating. But nonetheless, if tonight we're in God's house and we're looking back and we're saying, in my own personal experience, all my best days are behind me. My joy, it's behind me. My passion for souls, it's in the past. My participation in prayer, it's in the past. My outreaching to the lost, it's in the past. Everything's in the past. Now you can put the blame wherever you like. The fault is right with you. And as far as it affects you, that's where the fault lies. And the fault is right with me. In other words, this is something we have got to start personally, judgment beginning at the house of God, beginning with you and me. What's the state of God's people? Great question. Individually. then as a body. Now let me point this out to you, for this is vital. There are many ways in which you can ask that question. You can ask that question to find fault. You can ask that question to lay on blame and guilt. You can ask that question in supercilious arrogance? You can ask that question in downright bitterness. Or you can ask that question, as Nehemiah asked it, with a heart burden for the good of God's people. The only reason he asked this was He yearned over God's people. He yearned over God's people. Again, let me stop there. I'm asking you tonight and I'm asking me. Stop and take stock. Have a look around you. Think of all the people. Think of the people here in the Sabbath day. Think of the families. Think of our church directory. Those who have committed themselves to this work under God. Do you pray for them? Do you really yearn for their good? It's easy to point and say, I don't like what That fella does or what she does. I don't like this. I don't like that. That's the easiest game in the world. And it's the devil's con game to keep everybody out of blessing. I've said before, as I've addressed you. And I've proved in my own life. There's always one illustration that comes to mind when I cover this area. of a person who I felt was grossly unfair, grossly demeaning, bitterly insulting. And I found the old Irish in me just getting up and, man, I didn't like it one wee bit. And I found a lot of bitterness. Thank God it didn't go on for very long, for the Lord didn't let it, but he hit me over the head with a very serious thought. And I realized, no matter how I judge what that person said and did, my bitterness is my sin. And it will wreck me and ruin me, and it will bring dishonor to the Lord. And that day I determined, Lord, I am going to pray. for that brother. I'm not going to pray that he'll repent. That's between him and God. Maybe he hasn't even a clue that he was as bad as I know he was. But I'm not even going to pray he'll repent. I'm not going to pray he'll apologize. I'm going to pray that God will bless him. I'm going to pray that the Holy Spirit will move upon him. I'm going to pray that God will give him great fruit in his life. I'm going to pray that the spiritual blessing of God will be mightily upon them. And I discovered you cannot pray for somebody and be bitter against them. It's impossible. I found something else. Not only did it bring healing and joy to my heart, it brought such a change in the person that I was praying about. has to be almost incredible without ever a word of controversy or confrontation ever being uttered. I want to tell you friends, there's a hundred ways to ask this. What's the state of this body? What's the state of each person? If you're asking it just to find fault, don't bother. If you're asking it to pray with humility, for the blessing of God upon his people, then you are where Nehemiah was. So he asked concerning the Jews and concerning the state of the city, what is the state of the church? Again, with a burden to see it built, blessed, that's the question. They said to me, verse 3, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Do you get that picture? That's a picture that goes far beyond this little congregation. That's a picture that I think lets you see where we really are in American Christianity today. The people, They're in affliction. And they're in reproach. Anybody who's trying to do a work for God, that's exactly where they are. But you look at the cause. The wall broken down and burned. The gates unhung. The defenses gone, apparently. That's a fearful way to put it. You think of what is flooding into churches all across America. You think of the filth that's flooding in. Filth. Wickedness. We're living in a day when the supreme Christian virtue of self-control And I say the supreme Christian virtue, that's the ninth of the nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit, is self-control. It's almost non-existent. Whether you're dealing with talk radio, where if you've got anything in your gut, any bile in your system, just get it out! Makes money for the radio station, people listen, so therefore advertisers pay. They make money while there are things belched out in the public arena that ought never to be mentioned. Unformed opinions from idiots on subjects that they know nothing about. They're all speaking as if they were Aristotle. You add to that that every Tom, Dick and Harry is emailing, texting on every subject under the sun. Talking about things that ought never to be talked about. Churches are judged by Internet blogs. Doctrine is established by Internet blogs. I tell you, what is coming into the church? It's telling us that the walls are down. The gates are burned with fire. And think not only of the church, think of your home. What has got into your home? What's got into the family? What defenses are there? It's a big subject, again, that I don't have time to go into tonight, but every Christian parent should stop here and ask it. What defenses are raised up in my home? Very often the gates are burned, the walls destroyed. Of course, you've got to think of your own heart. The Bible does speak of the man who can keep his spirit as a defense city. But the man who doesn't keep his spirit, that is, there's no self-control. He's like the city with the walls just like this, broken down and the gates burned. What's been flooding into your life? Big questions. Now, he got the answer. And this is the part I want us to take with us tonight. I should have got here a long time ago because time is already gone. It came to pass, when I heard these words, I sat down, I wept, I mourned certain deaths, I fasted, and I prayed. I'm not going to go through Nehemiah's prayer tonight. We may come back to that next week. Let me come back to where we started. What's the state of God's people? What's your response to the answer you get? Remember what I said, there are various ways to ask the question. So many people ask, oh, what's the state of the church? I'm going to tell you, because I've grown up with this. You see, I grew up in a small church where We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We were in a very, very difficult situation. Charlie was around there. He saw the huge housing complexes that were built as Northern Ireland had, especially Belfast, had been obliterated by bombing in the Second World War. There were huge public housing projects. You've got to understand that's a very different concept in Britain than it is here in America. But to try to put a society back together. But churches going into those areas, people had been moved out of their areas, a great population movements all across Britain. Social fabric was broken down. It made church work very, very difficult. By the way, that's a difficulty that it has never been able to this day to overcome. But our little church was there. We were the only such church in the area and we were battling to get people in. We had great success among children and young people. We had the biggest children's work in the free church. We had the biggest Sunday school work in the free church. We had a great band of young people who were laboring for God, doing a good work for God. We began to see the church grow, and then you'd always get somebody who wanted a fight. Always got somebody who wanted a fight. Shoot the thing in the foot, Down you go again, and you start from scratch, you build. And there were some of us there, and we were there through it all. And whatever gut-wrenching experience went on, we were going to battle it through and labor through and work our guts out to see that church do a work for God in that area. Build up again, again some idiot would come to devastate. Up and down, up and down. I know what I'm talking about here. I've been through this. Very often those very same people would come. The very people who had been up to their eyes and causing trouble over nothing. I've seen people split a church over decorating a church for a harvest service. You don't do that here, but we do that in Britain. Put fruits and vegetables around. Whether that apple goes there or whether it should be down there. I mean, literally as stupid as that. And yet those very same people would be ones who would come along and say, oh, this church isn't what it used to be. Any fool can say that. But not any fool can do what Nehemiah did. Nehemiah sat down. I think he sat down weakness. I think Nehemiah was brought to a place where he could hardly stand on his feet with a burden. This meant something to him. Nehemiah was not an onlooker, though he was far away, he was not an onlooker at God's work. He was not a commentator on God's work. He was not there as a mere critic of God's work. Nehemiah was Burdened And he sat down And he wept He wept Now let me ask you when last before God did you weep for the church? When last did you weep for yourself? for your family, for your friends around you. He was burdened. He wept. He mourned. I think there's confession there. You'll see it in the prayer when we get to it. There's confession there. He fasted. Prayer and fasting. For quite a number of years in this church, from time to time, we would set aside, usually a Tuesday, have an early morning prayer meeting, observe that day as a day of prayer and fasting. Many of you participated. I sat down, I wept, I mourned, I fasted, and I prayed. I prayed before the God of heaven. Brethren and sisters, let me tell you, God is sovereign in the level of blessing that He brings at any time. Revival, as Charlie indicated, is not just some umbrella word that you throw out there to mean nothing. Anything that can mean everything means nothing. If you use the word revival that way, it means nothing. But nonetheless, it should be our burden that God will visit His people, starting with me. Ezra spoke of a little reviving. It's not always an earth-shattering movement. That's up to God. He's sovereign in what He does, the extent to which He does it, when He does it. That's all in God's hands. But there are certain things that God has laid at our door. And these are the steps. Burdened. Weeping. mourning, fasting, praying. Now let me ask you a question. Is it possible for any man or any church to take God at His Word and respond this way? and fail to gain the ear of God. Is it possible? I tell you it's not. If it's possible for Nehemiah to go through all that and get no ear of God, then we can shut our Bibles, shut our church and go home. But it's not possible. God is not binding himself to fill our preconceived ideas, nor is he binding himself to our time scale. There's many a thing I want done today, and God may determine that it's going to be done next week or next month or even next year, or maybe after I'm dead and gone. That's the Lord's prerogative. But we are going to get through to God. We will personally know the benefit. As we'll see in the case of Nehemiah, we will know personal guidance. We will know personal service. We will know a personal usefulness to God in the work of God. As much that we will know when we take God seriously at His Word. Men and women, I'm here to appeal to you. I'm here to appeal to you. pray, as a church, as individuals. I want you to take this burden. Let God crush our hearts with it. And let's get through to God. Is He willing to be reached Sure he is. I'm going to finish. We're going to get down to prayer. Let me tell you something. I'm not a fool. That may come as a surprise to you. I'm not a fool. You don't spend almost 50 years working with people without getting to know something about people. And I can tell you, even as I speak, across this little congregation, you have people responding in different ways. You have people who are honestly saying, Lord, I want to be a Nehemiah. That's my response. Thank God. Let's take that and go before God. There are others who shrug it off. Heard it all before. Well, I hope you've heard it all before. I have been failing you for years if you haven't heard it all before. That's not the question. What's the response? There are others And you will find a reason to contradict me. You will find a reason to argue with what I say. You will find a reason to cover up your own sin. These are the responses that typically come. My appeal to you is, forget about me. I'm a nobody. Forget about the preacher. What I've read to you tonight is the Word of God. Get, and as soon as you close your eyes, and I appeal to you tonight to stay and pray, and close your eyes and open your heart and say, Lord, I want to meet with God tonight. I want to meet with God. I have the answer, the state of my heart, the state of the home, the state of the church, the state of the nation. Lord, I need to get through to God. So much we need to get through to God for. Deal with me. Visit your people. And if God will deal with each one of us tonight. And He will if we are willing to be dealt with. We are a bunch of Nehemiahs. I believe we can see the wall rebuilt. He saw it done in 52 days. That's amazing. 52 days. From ruin to revival in a couple of months. because a man asked the question, was burdened and sat down and wept and mourned and confessed and fasted and prayed. God says, I looked for a man. I looked for a man or a woman. What Ronald Reagan said of England and Margaret Thatcher is true of the church. He said Margaret Thatcher is the best man that England has. He was right. When I say he looked for a man, that's not a sexist statement. That's simply the way language is supposed to be. It's overarching. And many a time the best men in the church are women. Certainly when it comes to praying. I looked for a man. Let me ask you, when God's looking tonight, is He going to find you? That's the real question. May the Lord bless His Word. May the Lord give us grace to pray. What's the state? Well, we can answer that pretty easily. What's the response? Lord, I'm here before you to do business with God. So we're going to get down to prayer. We have much to pray for. Homes, families, loved ones. Kids growing up into their teens not knowing Christ. Knowing the head knowledge but no fruit evident in their lives. All those things. If that's not your case, if your kids are still small kids, just remember you have it all in front of you. I always am amazed at You know, when before you're married, you think you've got it all down, just a little algebraic equation, this plus this equals this. Very often doesn't work that way. You've got little kids, it's easy to take them, set them down there and say, you sit there and that's it, and they're going to obey. Well, mostly. Harder to do that with a 16-year-old, a 20-year-old. Their burdens are peculiar to those years. Many of you are bearing those. God answers prayer. Don't give up. God answers prayer. Think of R. A. Torrey's mother. R. A. Torrey's mother prayed for him day by day. He became a modernist, skeptic, an infidel. Came to the place where I think he was ready to take his own life. Seemed that his mother's prayers were unanswered. Hotel room, I think it was, certainly alone. God spoke to him and smote him. God saved him. Augustine of Hippo. Mother prayed for him every day. The devil could tell her, Monica, God has not heard your prayer. Her son came to her and said, I'm leaving home. I'm going to Italy. I'm going to Rome. She knew if he gets away from home and gets to the big city, It'll wreck him, it'll ruin him, it'll damn him. But he left anyway. Before he ever got to Rome, he stopped in Milan and under the ministry of Ambrose. That wayward lad, brilliant intellectually and absolutely corrupt morally, met with Christ. You see, God was answering prayer. Mother, don't give up. God answers prayer. So let's take it to the Lord tonight. And let's lift our burdens to him. And let's cry that God will do a work first in us. But don't become all introspective in the public prayer meeting. Let's be praying that God will visit his church and giving them bread. and save a multitude and bring our families to you the unity of the gospel and the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.