Let's turn to Nehemiah chapter 4. Nehemiah chapter 4. We did look at the first part of the chapter last week, so we're going to start at verse 9. We're going to read this passage together. And Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed. I take a little encouragement in that. The work of God is hard work. Many times it's back-breaking work. And it's true of us all. You have your job to look after. You ladies have your house to look after. You have families to look after. You have a million things to do. And then on top of all that, you have the duties of church work. And it's hard work. I know in my part of the work, and I'm the most visible, people think, well, you know, that's where the work is done. Well, part of the work is done here, but this is not where the work is done. You are the work and you are the workers. It's not the bearer of burdens, it's the bearers of burdens. So we're all in it together. I know from my part, the hardest part of the work is the work that you never see. You never get to see it. That's true in any church. The most difficult part of the pastor's work is the unseen part. And there are many battles and many prayers and many tears and many agonies, many souls to be reached, many homes to be helped, many problems to be faced, all these things. There are burdens in the work of God. And I can tell you that the bearers of the burdens find their strength decaying. Now let me give you a wee bit of advice. If you're not bearing the burden of God's work, and I trust you will take the burden, and I trust in the days that come there will be an increasing number of people in this church who will actually take the burden. But if you're not bearing the burden, in God's name I beg of you at least, Do not destroy the strength of those who are taking the burden. There are burdens in God's work. If you're interested, if you're really sincere, you want to see your children saved and the rest of the children and families of the church saved, and you want to see the work of God increase, and you want to see evangelism, and you want to see revival, and you want to see churches built and extensions made, if you really have a burden, You know, if I could leave Greenville knowing that I'm leaving a people who have a vision for the work of the free church, who are in this church by conviction, not by convenience, but by conviction. I am a fundamentalist. I am reformed. I am a separatist. I am evangelistic. I do believe in personal standards. I don't believe in worldliness. I don't believe in beer-swilling, pipe-sucking, cigar-smoking Christians. I don't believe in it. I believe in what this church stands for. For Protestantism against Popery. For Bible belief against Rationalism. For Fundamentalism against New Evangelicalism. Put it all together. This is the package. We believe we're a praying church. We have a burden for revival. But we're not putting all our eggs in the one basket of revival, that unless you see revival, you've seen nothing. That's historically inaccurate and biblically inaccurate. Revival is God's sovereign work at any given time in the calendar of His purpose. But His ongoing work is where we are bearing the burden. And if I could leave Greenville with the assurance that here we have a growing number of people who have the vision, who have the burden, who have the commitment, who are willing to live and die in this work and give their best to bear the burden of the work, then I'd be a happy person. I would think it's been well worthwhile. But I tell you, there'll be times when your shoulders will feel weak. We're only human. And the strength of the bearers of burdens gets decayed. I don't want to go off and start speaking only topically now. But there is an answer to that. What is the answer? Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So when the bearers of the burdens are feeling the burden and the heat of the day, and you feel like giving up, that's when you get before the Lord. That's when you give yourself more than ever to prayer. That's when you cry that God will come and He promises, the Hebrew is, you'll change your strength. Put off our weakness for His strength, He gives you the strength. Where was I? Oh, it was somewhere up in the great Northwest. I can't remember exactly whose house it was in. I think it was up in the Northwest anyway, but they had this plaque up in the bathroom. I'm not going to go there. I've seen some strange plaques in bathrooms. Joan is saying, don't go there. She knows what I'm thinking. I'm not going to go there, Joan. Don't worry. But in all his innocence, my poor dad put up a plaque in our bathroom that was the most inappropriate thing ever to put in a bathroom that ever you could think of. So I'm not going to go there. But this was a little plaque they put up in the bathroom, which definitely, every time you go to that sink to wash your hands, you're starting a new day, maybe you're man-shaving or whatever the woman does, with all the stuff that women have in drawers, I don't know what they do in the bathroom. I think they should camp out there. But it was to this effect, that God will either take the burden off your shoulders, or He'll strengthen your shoulders to bear it. Very often it is not the Lord's will to take the burden away. You do not gain strength by never being strained. You do not get stronger by removing all burdens. You get stronger by being given the grace to bear the burden. Maybe tonight you've been looking to the Lord. Why, Lord, do you not take away this burden for your good? If he doesn't take it away, it's for your good. Maybe you should be praying, Lord, give me strong shoulders to bear the burden. But however, here's the danger when the burden bearers get weak. Notice what it says. There is much rubbish and we're not able to build the wall. Now, look at it quite naturally here. This city is in ruins. They're seeking to rebuild the walls. You can't, I mean, I'm not much of a construction person, but even I know you can't build a wall on top of a bundle of rubbish. You've got to have all that cleared out of the way. And the more they worked, the more rubbish there was. That's Life, friend, that's life in every part of life, and it's true in church life. We're not perfect. I would to God we were, but we're not perfect. God's people are not perfect. God's church, in its experience here on earth, is not perfect. And the more you work, very often the more it'll appear there's rubbish there. And when you get discouraged or defeated and weak, the rubbish doesn't get removed. I don't think I'm spiritualizing beyond what is suggested by the text when I say what happened to them physically happens spiritually. We all know it. When you get tired, what happens? The rubbish begins to accumulate. When you lose heart, the rubbish begins to accumulate. There's not the prayer that there ought to be. There's not the praise that there ought to be. There's not the separation that there ought to be. And before you know it, the rubbish is really mounting up. And you can't build a wall. Now verse 11, see what happens. And our adversary said, they shall not know till neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease. I want you to keep this in mind tonight and in the weeks and months to come. while we're waiting for our new minister, and after he comes, keep this in mind. No matter what we are doing here, the devil has one purpose in mind, and that is to make the work to cease. That's the devil's purpose. Bring it to a grinding halt. And if we are not taking care of the rubbish, we are giving place to the devil. and to the devil's crowd, and to the implements that hell would use in order to make the work to cease. Now as you read on down here, you find that's exactly what Sanballat and his crowd were wanting to do against the Jews. Verse 12, it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times from all places, whence ye shall return unto us, they will be upon you. Therefore said I in the lower places behind the walls and in the higher places I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people." And I want you to mark this text. I have it marked in two colors in my Bible so I'll not be able to overlook it. Be not ye afraid of them. That's a message from God in this prayer meeting for this people tonight. I'm not unfeeling. This has been a very hard day. I'm not unfeeling. And I'm not uncaring. And I know I've talked to too many of you. I know there are people here who are grieved and there are people here who are fearful. Be not ye afraid. That's God's command. Why not? Listen carefully. The Lord. That's it. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. So don't give in to weakness or fear. When you feel weak, go to the Lord. When you feel fear, and you're distressed, and you're looking to the future through dark glasses, and you're thinking, Our best days are behind us as a church. Remember the Lord. Has God changed? Is God leaving Greenville? Is God abdicating? Has God lost His right hand? No. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses. And I would say to you, brethren, sisters, tonight, as you look to the future of the work of God in this place, bear the burden, bear the heat of the battle. Commit yourself to it 100%. Forget about niggling differences. Forget about prejudices. Forget about hurts. Forget about past. Forget about everything. And remember the Lord and fight for your families. Listen. The burden that I have tried to set before you for 30 years, the vision that I have tried to set before you, the vision that I have tried to enunciate again tonight is so important. Listen, the future of your family is going to depend on whether we see God do these things or not. Turn this into a new evangelical compromising shop and you'll damn your families. Remember the Lord and fight. Do not give place to the devil and do not give up on the work of God. Let every young person, those of you who haven't even got married yet, who haven't started families, but in the will of God, you will have families. Remember, this is your future. If God gives you them, your children's future. This is the generational future. Ultimately, this is the church's future. And this is America's future. This is it. Remember, the Lord, He is great. He is great. I was just thinking of that in my psalm for this morning as I started off the day. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, for He is great. How great is God. How great is God our Lord. Remember him. He's great. He's terrible. He's terrible. The word terrible means he is to be feared. And the great thing is he can cause fear. Do you know what's wrong with America today? There is no fear of God before their eyes. Do you know the weakness of the church today? There is no fear of God. And there is no real demonstration in most places. There are exceptions, thank God. But there is no real demonstration of the person, the presence, and the power of God Enough to put the fear of God in the hearts of the ungodly. The church has sunk to gimmicks. It has sunk to programs. It has sunk to trying to use the methods of advertising. I'm not against advertising, by the way. But when you think that the success of the gospel depends on how you dress it up, you've sold out. What do we need? A terrible God. terrible God. When Jonathan Edwards preached, people trembled. They trembled. Now, we could say when he was preaching sinners in the hands of an angry God, it was a rude age. They were less educated. Though, mind you, there's not a man in America today educated to the level that Jonathan Edwards was educated. There's not a brain in America today that is anywhere near the brain that Jonathan Edwards had. He's the greatest philosopher that America has ever produced, the greatest thinker America has ever produced, and in many ways the greatest preacher and theologian America has ever produced. So don't think they're all that rude. But let me tell you something, socially, in Jonathan Edwards' age, and this is partly what led to his being kicked out of the church in Northampton after revival, In Jonathan Edwards' age, you had a social, sexual revolution. You had young people living wickedly and immorally. You had practices going on that were being countenanced. There was no secret they were going on, that today would have us scandalized. We think, you know, those were the good, straight-laced, moral old days. Don't you believe it? There was a hatred. There was a dead religion. And into that hardened bunch of people there came a man who preached with the power of God and sinners trembled. God is terrible. Just let us get a vision of God. But I wonder, and this is where I confess as a preacher all over the years, I have had to conduct an investigation of my own heart. If I don't tremble, who's going to tremble when I preach? If I don't know the fearful terribleness of God, the awesome majesty of God, how can I preach God? This starts with you and me. God is terrible. Remember him. All that we would learn to bow at his feet, all that we would learn to tremble in his presence, all that we would learn to glorify him in all his majesty and be fit representatives of him before this wicked, evil and adulterous generation. But that's the text. Will you watch it? Will you learn it? When you carry it with you into the days that are to come, be not afraid. Be not afraid. Let it ring in your mind. When you dream tonight, let it ring in your dreams. Be not afraid. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. And when you have a vision of Him, then go and fight. It came to pass, verse 15, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, that is, that they were about to ambush them, and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one to his work. Now here's one of the most beautiful pictures in all the Bible. And again, I trust you'll never forget it. Spurgeon was so taken with this picture that he named his church magazine after this passage of Scripture. So watch it carefully. And it came to pass from that time that half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, and the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons. And the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. They which builded on the wall, and they that bear burdens with those that laid it, every one of them with his hands wrought in the work. Isn't that a lovely picture? Would God that were true of us. Every one of us with his hands wrought in the work. Everybody went out from this meeting to invite a sinner to the service on the Sabbath day. Everybody took the opportunity to give out a gospel tract. Everybody, everybody worked with his hands in the work. But notice this. everyone with his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so builded." Spurgeon called his church magazine and the Metropolitan Tabernacle maintains a magazine by this name to this day, Dr. Peter Masters, the pastor and the editor. It's called The Sword and the Trowel. The Sword and Trowel. This is what it's based on. Here are the two parts of the work. The Sword and the Trowel. I said if I could leave Greenville with a people who were committed to the vision of the work, I would be happy in going." Summarizing all that vision, what is this work to which I'm calling you to be committed? There's two parts to it. There's the sword. That's the battle. Now that battle takes many forms. There's a battle for souls. You use the sword of the Spirit to plunge into the hearts of men and women, to see them slain by the sword of the Spirit and brought to Christ. It's a battle for souls. Never let this church lose its evangelistic zeal. Never. But there's not only a battle for souls. As we've indicated here, there's a battle for your family. And the sword is key to that battle And it's the sword of the Spirit of God. And then there's a battle against the enemies of the Lord. There's a battle against apostasy. Let this church never go soft on battling apostasy. Now, I want to tell you something. It has been very difficult. From the day I came here, it has been difficult in Greenville to get anybody to battle against apostasy. Oh, we can all talk about it. When the abortion crisis really hit big time, this was the only church in Greenville that was willing to go out publicly and take a stand. Others came later, but this was the first and only one. When open blasphemers have come to this town, When the Marian Conference came to Greenville, and they were holding up their Queen of Heaven, there was nobody would go to do anything. One church that was there, and only one. When the Pope was coming to South Carolina, I remember meeting with Dr. Bob Jr. Dr. Bob was a protester, Dr. Bob had guts. Dr. Bob was certainly a man who knew what he believed, loved the Lord, and was willing to battle for Christ. He was willing to lose his reputation in order to glorify the Savior. And I admired him for the willingness that he had. And he had a very simple idea. Let us get a thousand, sorry, not a thousand, a hundred churches. Was it? It wasn't a hundred, it was about thirty churches. Get thirty churches to give a thousand dollars each, and we will take a full-page ad in USA Today, and we will, in a tasteful way that's worthy of Christ in His Gospel, we will put out there to the nation our opposition to the Roman Pope. He immediately committed the university for the first thousand. And I said, well, our church is in for a thousand. We'll do it too. And I thought, you know, this is easy. There were one or two others that indicated they were willing. And this was not just in Greenville, this was all around. He didn't get it. Those of you who were here will remember at that time there was no advert in USA Today. This church paid to take a full page ad in the Greenville News. And it made me grieve that we didn't have it in USA Today because of that ad in Greenville News. I did an interview with some of the network, not the cable, the network, the NBC or somebody. That was carried nationwide because one little church in Greenville put it out. And I remember standing there when the girl came to do the interview. I'm sure her editor was furious because you're sent to get 30 seconds and don't let it go on. She couldn't stop. They ran out of film. She'd start again, put a new film in, go again. Because she expected to come. She fully expected to come and find some redneck with, you know, hair and grass growing out of his ears and just giving her a diatribe. When she came here, I was able to quote her verbatim. I'm not sure I could do it all now. I quoted her verbatim from the words of the Vatican Council documents and the post conciliar documents and the writings of Paul, John Paul II himself. I was able to quote all those word for word. And this is what the Bible says. This is what they say. This is why we are taking the stand we're taking. This is not some, you know, mad people who are just furious at the world. This is for the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. which will only stand when Jesus Christ Superstar came to town. Only one church would go down and hand out leaflets. Only one. When I suggested to the pastors of this town, and I'm not being critical of them, my brethren, some of them I know well and I respect them deeply. But when I suggested to them, instead of just putting a placard up that says Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus Christ the Savior, a jagged line between they are not the same. I said, we'll help you pay for that. But instead of that being the only thing, let's get our church choirs together. Let's get about 500 voices. Let's go down and occupy the ground opposite the Peace Center. Let's sing the great hymns of the church instead of this rock trash. Let's sing the great hymns of the church. And while they do that, let others hand out a leaflet. that tells people what this is all about. No placards, no shouting, no ruction, no riot, no mad Irishman shooting people. You would have thought that I had just dropped a grenade in the meeting. It was never done. I don't like protests. I don't like them. And a church will never be built on controversy. But I want to tell you there comes a time when the glory of Jesus Christ is at stake. And I trust this church will never lose the guts to stand. There's a sword in the battle against apostasy. but there's a trial. There's many people and they're against everything. You've got to be very careful. How did Talmadge Spence, Dr. Talmadge Spence put it? You've got to contend without being contentious. And his favourite way of putting it you should be militant but magnificent. And I think he had it right. You see, you can get to the place where you just love to fight for fighting's sake. Now, that's coming from an Irishman. Where we're told we love to fight. We tell the story over there about the Englishman, the Irishman, the Scotsman, the Welshman, they met together. We're all full of these stories about Paddy Englishman, Paddy Irishman, and they were talking about the gospel. The Welshman said the loveliest thing about the gospel is you can sing about it. The Englishman said the greatest thing about the gospel is you can talk about it. If you know the English, you'll know that. The Scotsman, if you know him, you'll listen, be right in his wheelhouse, he said the best thing I know about the gospel is it's free. And the Irishman said, the best thing I know about the gospel is you can fight for it. Well, content for the faith. But don't fight for the sake of fighting. Remember, there's a sword in one hand, but there's a trowel in the other. The sword is the battle. The trowel is the building. Building. Edifying one another. Let us not tear each other down. Build up your brethren where you can encourage, encourage. Build up the work. Battling and building, building and battling. That's the future. That's the vision. I trust you'll never forget that. I fear to think how many prayer talks I have given in this church. These are not sermons, these are just rambling prayer talks to lead us to pray. I want you never to forget the last one. Battling. Building. Building. Battling. That's our calling. If you've come tonight, your shoulders are weak, you're feeling the pain, Take it to the Lord. Renew your strength. If you're feeling fear, remember the Lord, which is great and terrible. And then go.