Well, God has a reason for putting Nehemiah 7 here. To us, it is another chapter full of names. And yet the last time we saw a chapter full of names, chapter 3, there were important lessons there for us to learn. It's the same with this chapter. It might not seem like much and it's the sort of chapter that you skim over in your personal reading and you just sort of smile at some of the interesting sounding names. And yet there's some wonderful truths here that we would do well not to miss. You see, Nehemiah has finished the walls. This is big. This is what he came to do. He left Persia to build the walls of Jerusalem. They're finally done. And you would think, time for a big celebration. Well, that's going to come. The celebration is going to come in chapter 12. But before that can happen, Nehemiah's job is not over yet. He has more to do. You see, what's the good of building a city if there's no one to live in it? What's the good of building the walls if there's no one to stand on them and watch and guard the city? All would be for nothing if Nehemiah didn't finish the work, finish the job. So Nehemiah now sets about an important task. of populating the city of Jerusalem and protecting it. And this is the same in the building of the spiritual Jerusalem, the kingdom of King Jesus. He came from heaven to earth. He left the realms of the great king of heaven, the side of his father. And he became a child in a manger. He lived upon this earth. He left heaven to come and build this kingdom. He died on the cross to purchase this kingdom. He accomplished our redemption. And yet, what is his kingdom if there's no one to live in it? Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And so far we've considered the place for the people. Now this chapter turns our attention to the people for the place. The accomplishment of redemption must be applied to God's people. They must be gathered in and brought into Jerusalem They must become part of God's holy city, the body of Christ. And so this question of how Jerusalem will be populated and how it will be protected is really an Old Testament picture of that great work of the Holy Spirit who goes out to apply the redemption purchased by Christ to his people and to gather them together into the church, into the body. to redeem them from captivity and bondage to sin. And just as the original settling of Israel in the land of Canaan was a picture of God's church entering heaven itself, so in a similar way this process Nehemiah engages in replays that. This is the culmination of the Israelites coming back out of exile a second time. Back into their promised land. Back to Jerusalem, the city where God promised He would live with His people. So this is very significant. You may remember that Hebrews chapter 11 verse 10 says of old Abraham that he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. this city of Jerusalem is an Old Testament picture not only of the church but of the church's final destination in glory where they will never be parted from their King and the question that this chapter asks all of us is this who will live in Jerusalem? Will this holy city Protected and secure be your home. Will you be found within its walls? We're going to consider this chapter under two simple headings. Firstly, protecting the city and secondly, populating the city. Firstly, protecting the city. Upon completing the walls, the first thing that Nehemiah does is to give over the charge of running Jerusalem to his brother, Hanani, and another man called Hananiah. Now, it may well have been the case that Nehemiah had to go back to Persia, because you remember, maybe you remember from chapter 2, I know it's some time ago, that he told the king of Persia that he would be gone for a certain period of time, that he would return. So perhaps he goes back at this stage, we're not entirely sure, it doesn't say, but yet he entrusts the running of Jerusalem to these faithful men. Now, Hanani was a very faithful man, you may remember his name from chapter 1. When Nehemiah was in Susa, the citadel, Hanani came all the way from Jerusalem and he brought a report to Nehemiah about the state of the Israelites in Jerusalem and Judah, that they were there in great reproach and that the walls were still derelict and that the gates were burned with fire. This was a man who loved Jerusalem, who loved God's people, and would travel months and months through the desert all the way to speak to Nehemiah to bring him news about Jerusalem. He of all people shared Nehemiah's love for God's people and God's city. And then we're told about Hananiah. He was a faithful man and feared God more than many. So these two men of God They were made overseers. Overseers of the church. Men who love God's people and fear God more than they fear men. Two very, very important qualities of any man who would be an elder or a leader in the church of Christ. They must have a love for the people of God and they must have a fear of God. both of which encapsulate their horizontal perspective and then their vertical perspective with the Lord. And these men had both. This clearly reminds us of what Paul says to Titus, doesn't it? He told Titus, And what does he say? He says, an overseer must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, nor given to whine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convict those that contradict. Lord willing, we hope the Lord will provide our church in the future with more elders, with more deacons. We've got to look for men that love the church and who fear God more than men. These are the kinds of men Christ is looking for for his church. And these are the kinds of men that Paul says are a gift from the ascended Lord Jesus to his church. You may remember Ephesians chapter four, Paul says that when Jesus Christ ascended, he gave gifts to the church. And he lists what those gifts are. He says, he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. And so this is what we pray for here in this place. We pray that God would not only populate the church with those who are being saved and those who are being brought in, but that he would provide overseers, men of love, men of reverence, men who fear God. And perhaps, I don't know, the Bible says, that he who aspires to the office of an overseer aspires to a good thing. Who knows in the Lord's providence whether we have such men amongst us and the Lord is raising you up, calling you to this work and preparing you for it. He will call men that love his church and who fear God more than many. But in Nehemiah's case, the overseers, they put in place, but there's hardly anybody to oversee. So look at verse 4. Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt. This brings us to our second point, populating the city. Just as God had put it into Nehemiah's heart to build the wall, he now puts something else into Nehemiah's heart. Look at verse 5. Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return. This wasn't a census like the one that King David ordered. You may remember that at the end of his reign. Because we're told that the devil put it into the heart of David to do this thing. This was something instead, here, this was something that God put into the heart of Nehemiah to do. It was something most necessary. He wasn't trying to satisfy his curiosity as to how many men he had. This was something important to establish very clearly who should live in this restored city. See, with all the workers gone, you know, we read in chapter three of all the men from Jericho who came and of all the men from all these other towns and villages and hamlets who came to build Jerusalem's walls. Jerusalem was bustling with people at that stage. But once they'd all gone home, the place was nearly empty. There weren't houses. So, Nehemiah must now determine who should live in Jerusalem. And do you think he just went out and found random people? He just went out on the highways. Well, you'll do. Come on, you can live in Jerusalem. How is he going to decide who should populate this great city? Random people? No. Jerusalem must be filled with God's people. People who love and worship God. It wouldn't do to have Gentiles living in this city. It must be filled with people who can trace their lineage back to the seed of the patriarchs, the heirs of the covenant promises, people who had been redeemed. So where does Nehemiah look? Well, in verse 5, we begin to see his strategy here. He finds a register of a genealogy, an old genealogy of the first return in the days of Cyrus and he looks back to this list which is very, very old and we're told then in chapter 11 we read that the rest of the people cast lots to bring out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. And then the rest of chapter 11 gives us the names of the people who were settled in Jerusalem taken from this list. They had to be from Jewish families. Which is why establishing who those families are in our chapter is so important. In fact, it's quite interesting. Chapter 7 of Nehemiah is very, very similar to the list that we have in Ezra chapter 2. Some scholars think that these two lists are one and the same. The only problem is that some of the names are spelt differently, and some of the numbers between these two lists are different, which has led some scholars to say, well, this must be a mistake in the Bible. These numbers must be wrong. They must have been corrupted somehow. Well, you might ask, well then, if the numbers, are the numbers here in Nehemiah the inaccurate numbers, or are the numbers in Ezra the inaccurate numbers that were somehow not counted up properly? Do you know, we've gotten very used to hearing people say today that the Bible has mistakes in it. I get tired of hearing about textual variants and copying errors and all of these things. You know, this scribe must have made this mistake and that scribe must have made this mistake. Look, granted, there are places where good manuscripts disagree on the correct reading and we have to pray for God's wisdom to discern what the original text had. But there are too many places where scholars just throw up their hands and they say, well, there you have it. Another mistake in the Bible. It's just more mistakes. I prefer the view of John Wesley. He once said, if there be any mistakes in the Bible, there may as well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that book, it did not come from the God of truth. Friends, there aren't mistakes in the Bible. There aren't mistakes. So when we compare these lists in Ezra and Nehemiah, I would rather believe by faith that these numbers are different for a reason. That God meant these numbers to be different from the list in Ezra. For starters, there are plenty of simple explanations for why these lists are different. We can all struggle with numbers and if you've ever had to keep track of a group of people, it's very difficult. I've had the privilege of being a leader on a few youth camps so far and the number of times you've got to do a headcount, you know, you're there in the bus, you're going on a little field trip and someone inevitably has left their lunchbox and they're going to miss the bus. You've got to keep doing the headcount. So is it possible that perhaps Ezra's list is a list of the people who signed up to go to Jerusalem? And that maybe Nehemiah's list is a slightly later list of those who arrived in Jerusalem? And that the numbers are different because some people went and other people didn't? We have to consider that possibility and I would far rather consider that possibility before concluding that the Bible's got some mistakes in it. And this is actually very important because of what these things typify. You see, Jerusalem is the Old Testament picture of the church, and in the final analysis, it's the picture of heaven itself. It's the kingdom of God. And so this ancient list of names is highly significant for determining who may settle in Jerusalem. Because only those that God has redeemed out of sin and death, out of Persia, out of Babylon, may have a part in that holy city. Those who are truly part of the Church of Jesus Christ, saved from slavery to their sin. Revelation 21 verse 27 speaks of this heavenly city. It says, but there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's remarkable. You see, just as Nehemiah consulted a list, so our Lord consults the Book of Life and the names written there to determine who will be allowed entry into the heavenly Jerusalem. And this Book of Life is no new register. Dear Christian, your name was not etched in the Lamb's Book of Life the day you were converted. It's been there a lot longer than that. No, the Lamb's Book of Life is a very old and ancient book. Your name has always been there if you are in Christ. Even before God made the world itself or anybody knew to call you Bob or Janet or whatever your name is. Revelation 13 verse 8 tells us how this book is very old. It speaks of those who are worshipping the beast, right? And it says, all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from before the foundation of the world. Do you hear that? This plan to save you from sin and death and have your name written in this book. This was an eternal plan. How secure our place in the heavenly Jerusalem is. Unlike the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah, God's list can never be altered. It can't be taken away from you by anyone. It is written in an ancient book. Gehardus Voss once put it this way, he said, The reason, dear Christian, that God will never stop loving you is that He never began. He never began. How do we know this? Well, God tells us in Jeremiah 31 verse 3, I have loved you with an everlasting love. He doesn't say, I do love you with an everlasting love. He doesn't say, I will love you with an everlasting love. He says, I have, in the past tense. I have loved you with an everlasting love. You know, your coming to be in the church, and not just the visible church, but that invisible church, the very body of Christ, if that is indeed where you abide, is not an accident. It wasn't a random decision. Just as those chosen to live in Jerusalem were chosen from a list that predated them by 90 years, so too with us. We come to live in the church thinking that we stumbled across this beautiful city all by ourselves. But really, it was all according to God's big book. And so the psalmist can say in Psalm 139, Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. We're not here by accident. Your name written in heaven. It's a glorious truth. It's a glorious truth. Jesus Christ loves his people with an eternal, everlasting love from eternity past. Before anybody knew you, your name was there. But perhaps now you might say, well, if it's all determined before time began, need we do anything? If it's set irrevocably and unchangeably, God has the names of all the people he's going to save in a book that is older than time itself. Why bother doing anything? I'll just have a nice life, right? Well, there might be some sort of logic to that on the surface, but this is a completely unbiblical way of thinking. You see, in Luke 13, Somebody once asked Jesus a question about how many people would be saved. I forgot about this until I read it this week. I thought, wow, I've never realized. Then one said to him, Lord, are there few who are saved? Jesus' answer is very instructive. He says, and he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow gate for many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able. He doesn't directly answer the question that's been posed to him. It's like he's saying, don't get caught up on that question. Your job isn't to find out and to determine who everybody is that's going to heaven. Strive to enter, he says. Too many Christians waste their time trying to get a peek at the Lamb's Book of Life to see whether their name is there What they should be doing is striving to enter the kingdom. This is what the Bible lays upon us as our responsibility and duty. We can't know who the names are in that book, but you must strive with all your might to enter that kingdom. And so we find in Scripture this tension between the sovereignty of God and our responsibility. And it's something that we can't get our finite minds around. And I think that these lists, these lists of names, they reveal to us the mysteries of God's ways. You see, the astute reader would recognize that there are numbers of people missing here. And as we said before, the differences, they're not unintentional. The differences tell us a story. So look at verse 10. The sons of Arah 652. In Ezra's list, there's 775. Where did 123 people go? Did they just disappear into thin air? What happened to them? Or look at verse 13. We have the sons of Zatu. 845. In Ezra's list, there were 945. Where did those 100 people go? But look then at verse 15. Here there's 648. In Ezra's list, there were only 642. Six more people. Where did they come from? We don't know, and yet here they are. This tells us a story. Man may expect there to be 775 to arrive in the promised land, but according to God's eternal and unseen plan, only 652 are found in the second count. Matthew Henry helpfully says, some little difference there is between the numbers, which might arise from this, that some who had given in their names at the first to come afterwards drew back and said, I go, sir, but went not, which would lessen the number of the families they belonged to. Others that declined at first afterwards repented and went, and so increased the number. The Bible always teaches us that while God's eternal plan is irrevocably set and He knows those who are His, we are commanded to come and press into the kingdom, to strive lest we fall away. Your name might be recorded on some church register. That doesn't mean it's recorded on God's register. We might have 775 people in our church. God's register There may be only a portion of them, 642, that go to glory and strive to enter, strive to enter. We might have a list, a very small list, and yet when we get to heaven there are more people there than we thought, according to our little list. One day we're going to see the names in the Lamb's Book of Life. We're going to know. And I think we're going to be very surprised at who we find there. You see, among the list here, there are some peculiar names. I just want to point out one from verse 41. The sons of Pashur, 1247. This priest, Pashur, we read of him in Jeremiah 20. And he was an evil man. He was a wicked man. I'm just going to read out a section of Jeremiah 20, so you get the picture of who this man was. Now Pashur, the son of Emer, the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet. and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord. And it happened on the next day that Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, the Lord has not called your name Pashur, but Magur Mesabib. For thus says the Lord, behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. Moreover, I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its precious things, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon and there you shall die and be buried there. You and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies." Who would have thought that the sons of Pashur would come out of Babylon and that some of them at least would come to dwell in this holy city of Jerusalem after such a prophecy on this man. Who'd have thought that any of his family would return? Oh, but these sons were determined that the fate of their father would not be their fate also. They would not die in Babylon. They would not die in their sins. They would learn the lessons of the curse placed upon their father, Pashur. You see, we're going to be very surprised at the people that we meet in heaven. You don't expect them to be there. All of them will be trophies of God's grace. Hypocrites, murderers, adulterers, liars, thieves, all kinds of people. Just as Paul says, of such were some of you, but you were washed. And there's hope here for us. No matter who your parents were, where you came from, what sins you committed, or like the sons of Pasha, Be determined that nothing in all the world will stop you from escaping the cursed fate of dying in your sins in the land of Babylon. And there are also going to be people who come to the door of heaven having lost all record of their genealogy. You notice that in verse 61, there were some who could not identify their father's house nor their lineage, whether they were of Israel. There were these people. There are people who spend their whole lives longing for heaven. And yet all along they question whether they really belong there. Am I really an Israelite? Am I really a Christian? It's my prayer, just as Paul prayed, that we might all come to the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God. But there are some who struggle to arrive at that place of assurance. That place where they know that they are Israelites. To know that they belong in the holy city. You know, often we're feeble and we lose our way or we lose our mind or our faculties. I once saw somebody who had lost their mental faculties and they were asked, do you know who you are? And they said, I have no idea, I don't know. But I know that I am washed in the blood of Christ. We often lose our way, we lose our assurance, we can stumble and err. But praise be to God that he holds us. As Jesus said, he's the good shepherd, he holds us in the palm of his hand. That is what truly matters. So as we bring this to a conclusion, who will enter the heavenly Jerusalem? those who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, those who have been redeemed out of Babylon, out of exile, to their sin. Those people that God is gathering to make them part of his church, their names are found in a book more ancient than time itself. My friends, strive to enter in. Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. There is nothing more important at the end of the day than that you be found behind the walls of Jerusalem when the judgment comes. I want to see you there. Amen.