We're turning back to the book of Nehemiah. Now don't get worried. I'm not going to try to finish the book of Nehemiah in the next three weeks. Uh, that would be a long series of Wednesday night, uh, probably about four hours each. Uh, but we will look at some things and Nehemiah chapter three. Let me make the obvious statement. It follows on from Nehemiah chapter 2. Now you see what education can do for you. Advanced mathematics. I say that because in chapter 2, it ends with Nehemiah surveying the need, going to the people to tell them how the Lord had led them, And then, giving this great invitation, come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more reproached. And the people responded. And the response is given to us in this third chapter. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. But it starts then, Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they builded the sheep gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it, even unto the tower of Mea. They sanctified it unto the tower of Hananiel. And next unto him builded the men of Jericho, and next unto them builded Zachor the son of Imri. And so on down, talks, verse 3, about the fish gate And then verse 6, about the old gate. In verse 13, the valley gate. And the next verse, the dung gate. Down in verse 15, the fountain gate. And then down 26, the water gate. Two verses later, the horse gate. Next verse, the east gate. And then in verse 31, we have the gate Mifcad. And back in the last verse, to where we began at the sheep gate. Now this is one of those chapters that most people come to, they read, and man, this is sort of tedious. Now I know that most Christians are not going to use that sort of language and say it when they're talking about a part of the Bible. But if truth be told, that's what they feel it is, tedious. What do I know about sheep gates, fish gates, valley gates, dung gates, and all the rest of it? And so what anyway? It's a wee bit like all those names in the first chapters of 1 Chronicles. They are inspired. They have their use. They have their necessary use. And they're there for a good purpose. But for your devotional reading, Do you find it tedious? I have never met anybody who doesn't. Although I have met many people who wouldn't admit it. But lists of names, in themselves, we don't feel to be calculated to set our souls on fire with devotion and love and power to serve the Lord. So yes, this does seem to be a tedious recitation. Amidst all these names, there are gems of biblical truth. The story was told of a commander in the Second World War during the relief of the Philippine Islands. And he had a particularly dangerous mission. And he asked for a volunteer to step forward. And as it turned out, he had his head down as he asked for this and then lifted it to see who would undertake what was probably going to be a death mission. And he was shocked. He said, what? Is there not a single man willing to undertake this? And one of his more junior officers said, sir, you mistake. Every man stepped forward. Every man stepped forward. And that is almost what Nehemiah found. He had a tremendous response to an urgent need. There's a lot that's not recorded here. You've got to take for granted. You must understand in the histories of scripture, they're a wee bit like certain kinds of poetry. I remember we had to learn a poem by the name of Sir Patrick Spence. I'm sure Joan remembered doing that too. And that particular kind of poetry is one that hits the highlights. It leaves you to fill in all the details. You get that often in biblical history. We're not told anything about the preparation. Obviously, there was tremendous planning and preparation had to go into this before you get from chapter 2 to chapter 3. But we're not given that. We're now simply given the response to the invitation that Nehemiah made. And what a response it was. It wasn't entirely 100%. But it was well now 100% saying, yes, we are going to do the task. I trust that you'll have a look at Nehemiah 3, for it is a passage of scripture that is very vitally relevant to this congregation at this time. If ever there were a time, when we needed a 100% response from God's people to say, yes, we will arise. We understand, as was true in the days of Nehemiah, that this is against a background of failure, a background of hurt, a background of suffering, All that is in the background, but now God has brought us to a place where we must arise and build the work of God. You may ask, does God not do His own work? Yes, He does. And while I don't really believe He has no hands but my hands, you've probably heard that little chorus, He has no feet but my feet, I don't believe that for a minute. Yet I do believe that God uses my hands and my feet and your hands and your feet. It's very interesting that He would not commission angels to preach the gospel. He commissioned men. You'll notice even in the accounts of the resurrection of Christ, the angels' ministry was very brief. They simply told the women. And after that, The angels retired from the scene. And it was the women, then the men, who carried the message. So God uses His people. Yes, He has a plan. He has a purpose for His work. And He'll carry it through. Nehemiah had this in mind at the end of chapter 2 when he said, The God of heaven, He will prosper us. No doubt about that. But there is No excuse for us. And we must not make the sovereignty of God an excuse for the indolence of man. We are looking for 100% response. This is a critical time for this congregation. A critical time over the next months and in the will of God, years. to see coming to fruition all the vision, all the work, all the labor, all the praying of many years, to see the work of God really become what God's intention is for this congregation. We need to get back to being a mother of new churches. It's wonderful that from this church you can trace a dozen, 15, 18, whatever it is, churches over the years that have spread out from this church. We thank God for that. But we need to get back to see more of that. We need to regain the vision, the urgency, the excitement, the commitment to the work of God. We need to arise and build 100%. I can't tell you anything more than you know. about Mr. Mercer. I'll tell you more, I haven't been calling him to screw his arm around his back to tell him he's got to come. Sometimes I feel like it, but I haven't done that for a very good reason. As I told our session and committee last night, the only thing I've said to him as a personal friend is if God wants you here, I want you here. And if God doesn't want you here, then I don't want you here. And, of course, he thoroughly agrees with that. But I can't tell you any more. I can only tell you to pray and sign the call, because that's the only way a man knows that the congregation wants him to come. But I'll tell you this. If, as I trust in the will of God the Lord sends him, if Nehemiah couldn't do the work on his own, Neither can Colin Mercer. And there's need for a 100% response. Now when you look at these gates, there's various ways that people look at them. Some people spiritualize this whole chapter. Take all the gates and they take the spiritual meaning of each gate. Now that is what made Mike Barrett go gray so quickly. That offends. an Old Testament scholar. He's shaking his head. Well, he's only partly right because there is in places every reason to spiritualize it. Not with gunkum. Gunk gunk. Yeah. But I don't think that's the way to treat the chapter. It's all spiritualized. There are people, since this is the one chapter in the Bible that gives you more of a description of the topography of Jerusalem than any other chapter in the Scripture, there are people here and they see nothing but a plan of Jerusalem. I think somewhere in the middle you'll get the real force. It's interesting that the thing starts at the Sheep Gate. Probably true to say that if you look, and it's not that we are absolutely sure of every single location, but the main locations you can be sure of, you go to Israel, you find it is an archaeological paradise, and archaeological digs are taking place all the time, and many, many of these places have been solidly identified. So you can actually say that if you start just around north and just go anticlockwise right around. This is the tour of the city anticlockwise going around the gates. And it starts with the sheep gate. Sheep gate got its name simply because, A, that's where the sheep were brought in and out. It was near the temple area. It's where the priests would have their helpers at the sheep pool washing the sacrifices. It's the place where they would go in for sacrifice. That's why I say There is every reason to see a spiritual message here. You see, any work of building starts always at God's sheep gate. Any work in the church always is going to start at the cross. Unless we are absolutely committed to the work of the sheep gate, then no other work is worth anything. This is what makes the city of God uniquely the city of God. It's the place of the sacrifice. It's the place of the cross work of Jesus Christ. And in all our buildings, It is a building to, or should I say, from and right unto the cross. There is a completion of the circle. You start at the cross, you end at the cross, and everything in between is related to the cross. That's been the genius of this work over the years. That's been the secret of this work over the years. And it must continue to be in our preaching, in our praying, in our fellowshipping, in our evangelizing. Whatever we do, It has always got to be from this basis. It's interesting that Eliashib the high priest rose up. That's a wonderful thing. The high priest was usually a very venerable person. Yet the high priest did not think it beneath his dignity to be out there clearing rubble, working to build the wall of Jerusalem. the other priests with them and it's interesting that though the wall was not yet finished and the general work of Sanctification of of the work unto the Lord was not yet taking place yet. They took what they did and they led down a marker The marker was this we are sanctifying this unto the Lord This was a wonderful statement for everybody else to follow. We are following Nehemiah But this is not Nehemiah's work. This is God's work We are dedicated as servants of Nehemiah, but we are first and foremost servants of Jehovah. And this is dedicated unto the Lord. Sure, get behind a man, but never forget you're serving the Lord. Never get your eyes off the Savior. If you get your eyes off Christ and get them on me, or get them on anybody else, you're going to fall flat on your face. You're going to be disappointed. You're going to find reason to be angry or bitter or frustrated or whatever. But you get your eyes in the Lord and you'll find that the Lord will never fail. The Lord never frustrates. He tests your faith, mind you. But you get your eyes in Him. That's where Eliashib and the priests started. I find it interesting here that you have a list of names. And you just take this at the simplest possible level. Most of these people are people that you would not otherwise have heard of. You'd not know a single detail about what they did in life. But in Nehemiah chapter 3, they're listed by God Almighty among the builders of the wall of Jerusalem. When you turn to the New Testament, you find a similar thing. You come toward the end of the book, not the book of the end. I didn't sleep much last night, so it's telling. Toward the end of the book of Romans, you've got a list of names. You never heard of them otherwise. Who are they? What are they? You can let your imagination run riot. The truth is, we don't know very much except this. that they were dedicated servants of the work of God in the church in the city of Rome. You see, the Lord knows His work, man. You're not working for recognition. You're not laboring because people know what you do. You're not laboring for the applause of men. It's a terrible thing to have said of anybody what Jesus said of the Pharisees of His day. They have their reward. This is the best it's ever going to get for them. That's a terrible thing. But oh, when you're serving the Lord, the world may not know what you're putting into the work of God. Even those around you may not recognize what you're putting into the work of God. Sometimes that can be frustrating. And you're only human. And you want recognition. Well, let's understand this. The only recognition that really matters is the recognition that the Lord gives. And He is not unjust. And He's not unmindful. He will remember the labor of love. He promises that. He will remember the labor of love. He knows those who are laboring. It's actually here also equally clear that He knows those who are not laboring. In verse 5, we read next, unto them the Techoites repaired. The men of Techoa came into Jerusalem to labor. But then we read this, but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord. The people labored. The Techoites came in to help. But their nobles, their leaders, they didn't give themselves to the work. Now, I don't think it's going too far to say, these are guys who wanted all the blessings and the benefits of a strongly fortified Jerusalem. If Jerusalem was strongly fortified, Then that was going to bring peace, safety, and prosperity to the entire surrounding countryside. And Tekoa was going to benefit. These fellas wanted the benefits, but they didn't want the burden. They wanted to get in on the act of reaping, but they didn't want to get in on the act of laboring. And so they did not put their necks to the work. Now, they had a name. They were lords of the Tequoites. They had a position. They had recognition. But God had His finger on them and said, they're not laborers. It's a very solemn thing for you and me to realize tonight. God knows us as we really are. In the first Chapters of the book of the revelation we have the letters to the seven churches churches are listed at the end of chapter one Then we have the details of the letter to each church in chapters two and three And in every case jesus starts I know thy works I know them I know the people who bear the burden of this ministry and prayer I know the people who give till it hurts to support every work of the ministry. I know the people who are seeking to win the lost for Christ. I know the people who are seeking to invite sinners unto the sound of the gospel. I know the people who are seeking hurting Christians to encourage them. I know the people who are mentoring weaker brethren. I know the people who are coming alongside to be a help and a minister of Christ. I know them. I also know the people who are full of hot air, talk much and do nothing. I know the people who put not their necks to the work of their Lord. I wonder tonight, in relation to this ministry, what does God know about you? What does he know about you? Perhaps the greatest lesson, well one of the two greatest lessons here is this. The power of the cooperative effort of the congregation of God's people. None of them built the whole wall. No group of them built the whole wall. They couldn't do it. What they did was each got busy in the work to hand. And as they labored side by side right around Jerusalem in 52 days, they built the world wall. Now that's an amazing thing. I was reading of a missionary in Bangladesh This would probably have been what I I'll say maybe 40 years ago. I can't be absolutely certain As you know Bangladesh is arguably the poorest country in the world It is subject to huge flooding poverty disease then are rampant This doctor and missionary was there to seek to do a work for God would also, in a very limited time, he had the job of, because the need was so urgent, of building 4,000 dwellings. And he had approximately between seven and eight weeks to do it. He did not have all the equipment that we would have in the West. He didn't have expert craftsmen, tradesmen, or anything. His Bible reading was in the book of Ezra. And his testimony was this, I finished the book of Ezra and read on in Nehemiah. And he was honest enough to say, I came to that tedious chapter 3. The list of gates. And in the middle of it all then, God smote him and God struck him. And he says, I realized Nehemiah didn't have all that he would want to have. Nehemiah couldn't do the job. But he took what he had and got the people and they all started in. And instead of piecemeal work, there they were at it all together like a beehive. And they said, I got from Nehemiah chapter 3 the plan for how we would do the work. And in exactly seven weeks, they finished their 4,000 dwellings. Now that's in the physical realm. And in many ways, that's always easier than the spiritual. But the truth is still there. Brown and sisters, what The Lord is looking for in His church is a genuine cooperative effort. You look at the early church, they had great men in leadership. They had the apostles after all. But did the apostles do all the work? Not at all. They did not do all the work. There was the greatest level of cooperation. Acts chapter 2 ends with a glorious statement of the unity of fellowship and purpose of the people of God. If you're going to learn anything from Nehemiah chapter 3, learn this. We have no room. We have no room and no cause whatsoever for division, for foolish separatism. There is a separation from apostasy that is necessary. but there is no room among the people of God for that which will divide brother from brother and sister from sister, make hearts hard and careless and indifferent. There must be a sinking of everything of mere personal self-interest and saying we are giving ourselves unitedly, wholeheartedly and totally unreservedly to the building of the walls of Jerusalem, to the work of God to which He has sent our hand. Co-operative effort. There are a few places in this chapter when you learn something absolutely vital. And it's this, starting in verse 10, and there are two or three other places I'm not going to go through for the sake of time. Next unto them repaired Jediah, the son of Hamrimah. even over against his house." Even over against his house. Now, in mere terms, or terms of mere logistics, this makes a good deal of sense. They did not have fast cars, and if they had, the rubble in Jerusalem would have punctured every tire. They, most of them, didn't even have a mule to get on. It would be crazy to have somebody whose house was in the southeast of Jerusalem working over in the northwest. Spend half the day going there and half the day coming back and getting the work done. If there was any attack in the house, he wouldn't be there. So what they did, as much as possible, each labored near his own home. Now let that sink in. Here they're building the whole city wall. They're looking at the big picture. But in the big picture, you've got a lot of little pictures. And the little picture is every man had to have the burden first for his own house. And the truth is, if you're not willing to build the walls around your own house, you're not willing to do anything in the work of God. You can't build the work of God while neglecting your own house. This is where it starts. How can we possibly expect to see a great work done in a church if we're careless about our own children? Doesn't matter whether they're destroyed or whether they're not. It has to matter. We have got to take that part of the work that impinges most directly on our own homes and families, we've got to take that part more seriously. They built. over against their own homes. There is a great work to be done. Work at home, a work relating the home to the church, a work relating the church to the home. It's easy for me to say that, that actually, that actually is probably the most difficult and yet the most necessary thing in any congregation of God's people. Relating the family to the church and the church to the family. We do not fare, I have to be honest and I say this with great sorrow, we do not fare any better than most other churches in this. The level of drop-off of losing young people in the church today It's alarming. Sometimes losing them to the world. What we have been finding is losing them to compromise. You see, it has never been popular to be a separatist. It has never been popular to be in that despised minority. There was a time in the free church when we wore that badge with pride. And the more the world howled at us, the better we liked it, because the more we knew we were standing for God. But now we're living in a soft age. You've got a lot of evangelicals, and they're as soft as putty. They're very pliable and mostly very worldly. But they believe the right things. They write books that are wonderful books. I could name you men whose books are wonderful books, theologically accurate, and you have to say yes, you could learn a lot from them. But these men are stuck up to their eyeballs and compromise. They drink, they smoke, they dance, they run to movies, they play cards. A generation or two ago, every Christian minister who named the name of Christ as an evangelical would have been condemning these things as ungodly. You take a stand against them nowadays, and you're a nutcase. I've just been reading in preparation for a class I've got to teach. It's starting next week, I think, is it? One of the classics on the Christian ministry, Charles Bridges, the Christian ministry. This is a Church of England clergyman. Reading again what Bridges has said, you realize, you know, he was calling in his day for a stand and a standard of personal separation for ministers. And the people who wouldn't do it were the ungodly clergymen. They were unsaved. But saved men, right down the line. Nowadays, that's not the way it is. Christian liberty, that's the liberty. Go and have your beer, your whiskey, or whatever. And as soon as the government legalizes marijuana, it'll be the liberty to have marijuana too. Because the Bible doesn't say any more about Marijuana than it does about cigarettes. This is Christian liberty. And there is this sucking of young people into compromise. And I'm telling you, if ever parents needed to build the wall starting at their own home, this is the time. This is the time. Relating the family to the church The church to the family. Urgent, necessary work. I trust tonight that we'll learn a little from Nehemiah chapter 3. The work of rising to build the walls. Will we get 100% response? Or will we not? Will there be some like the nobles of Tekoa who don't put their neck to the work? I can tell you from experience, those people are always the best experts. They can tell you what should be done, what needs to be done. They can tell you how to do it. They remind me very much of my late lamented father-in-law. You see Joan's head down because she knows what I'm going to say. Joan's father couldn't hang a picture. He couldn't put a nail in the wall. He couldn't fix a fuse. His wife did all those things and he stood and watched her. But he was hung up on tools. He couldn't go downtown in Belfast without buying another tool. So he had this little toolbox. So, if he hired an electrician to come, if the electrician didn't have the tools, he had the tools. And the electrician would be there, or the carpenter, or the plumber, whoever it was, and Hector MacDonald would be there, and he'd be standing over him like a good foreman because his job, he, in his own job, he, that was his job, to stand over people and make sure they knew what they were doing. Trouble was, in his job, he knew what they ought to do. In this case, he hadn't a clue. He could criticize. He could instruct. He could tell you what needs to be done. But he never did it. I think it was a mercy he didn't because the house would have fallen down around him. But in God's work, there's an awful lot of that. I don't do anything. But I'm going to find fault with those who do. You know, the Lord, and this is, I'm not going to get into this in any detail. The Lord often overlooks great faults in people who are doing their best. That's not to excuse their faults. You remember when Philip first heard about the Lord? He went after Nathanael. Now what he said to Nathanael was rank heresy. He didn't know it. His heart was on fire to get Nathanael to Jesus. He didn't know enough to be able to give the pure doctrine of the person of Christ. So for him, he was just the son of Joseph. The Lord never said a word to reprimand him. Not because the Lord goes easy in heresy. He corrected it the right way. For when the Lord sees a heart aflame to do something for him, he'll bless it. I've seen that again and again. I've seen preachers who couldn't preach to save their lives, but God blessed them. God blessed them. For they were on fire to serve Christ. We're at a critical juncture. Rise up, O men of God. Have done with lesser things. And let's together get on with that necessary work. Building the walls, cooperatively, and yet each paying particular attention to outside his own house. May the Lord help us and use his word to instruct us as we come now to pray.