Turn to Nehemiah 6:15
It feels good when you finish something, doesn’t it?
I’ve been working on some projects at my house.
And it’s hard for me to think of anything else until the project is finished.
Well, here’s Nehemiah — after all the opposition and all the trouble — the threats and the ridicule and the tsismis,
Finally the work is finished.
Nehemiah 6:15 — So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
It’s amazing, but it’s only been 9 months since Nehemiah first heard about the condition of Jerusalem,
—And four of those months, he spent in prayer!
In 1:1, Nehemiah hears a report from his brother, Hanani — this was during the month of Kislev (9th month)
......and at that point, Nehemiah starts praying.
In 2:1, Nehemiah stands before king Artaxerxes and asks for permission to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls —
this was during the 1st month — the Jewish month of Nisan.
Now, in 6:15, the wall is completed — and it’s the month of Elul (the 6th month).
Do you ever come to a time in your life when you look back over the last year or so and say,
"If you told me a year ago that I’d be doing this today, I would have told you you were crazy!"
For example: just a year ago, Lenae and I were thinking about maybe having a baby — and now, look! Finished! (not really)
This must be just such a time for Nehemiah.
A year ago, he was just doing his job in the palace of King Artaxerxes, and now, look!
He’s in Jerusalem and the walls are completed!
It feels good to finish a job.
BUT, just like our baby isn’t finished,
Nehemiah’s job wasn’t finished just because the wall was now completed.
Verse 16 — When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
Now, here were the walls of Jerusalem — completed in just 52 days!
Now, if the people in the surrounding nations had said,
"Wow, Nehemiah is a great man — look what he has accomplished."
If they had said that, then I would say that ones doing the work of God did something wrong.
But that’s not what those people said:
They said, "Wow, God is helping them rebuild the walls."
And God received the glory.
The thing about doing work for the church is,
If you are faithfully doing the work, God will be the one who receives the glory.
If you are working for the church and you find that you are receiving praise and thanks for doing it,
then you’re doing something wrong.
But if you are working for the church and God is receiving praise and thanks,
then you’re doing the work correctly.
Johann Sabastian Bach once said, "All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul; where this is not remembered there is no real music at all — only satanic noise."
And so, all of JSB’s compositions begin with the letters, "J.J." — "Jesus Juva" which means "Jesus help me."
And all of his compositions end with the letters, "S.D.G." — "Soli Dei gratia" which means "To God alone be the praise."
You know, I’ve been noticing things about babies recently.
One of the most obvious things about babies is that they are totally selfish.
They don’t care about anyone other than themselves.
And we all start out that way,
But somewhere along the way, when we receive Jesus as our Savior and make him the Lord of our life,
We need to deny ourselves and die to ourselves,
So that whenever we do anything good, we don’t receive any of the glory.
"To God alone be the praise."
verses 17-19 — Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jeho-ha-nan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.
Now, the principle that just jumps out at me in these verses is this:
DON’T MARRY SOMEONE WHO IS NOT A CHRISTIAN.
Follow me on this, because it’s important
And I’m not just talking to the single women here, single men, this goes for you too!
Now, Tobiah was the enemy of God,
He was the enemy of God’s people,
And he was the enemy of God’s work.
Today, of course, anyone who is not a Christian is the enemy of God:
As Jesus said in Luke 11:23 — "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters."
And James says in 4:4 —Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
So here was Tobiah, and he was the enemy of God,
But all these Jews in Judah were under oath to him;
They were indebted to him;
They owed him something.
Why? Because he was family — married to the daughter of Shecaniah, son of Arah,
And because his son was married to the daughter of Meshullam.
Now, if you look over at 7:10, you’ll see that Arah was one of the original Jews who returned to Jerusalem.
Arah’s son was Shecaniah, and Shecaniah’s daughter was married to Tobiah — God’s enemy!
Not only that, but Tobiah’s son was also married to a Jewish girl.
You know, all through the work being done on the walls of Jerusalem,
it seemed that Sanballat and Tobiah sure knew a lot about what was going on inside the city of Jerusalem —
Now we know why!
6:19 — the Jews who were related to Tobiah by marriage were telling him everything that was going on in Jerusalem!
And Tobiah was using that information to send intimidating letters to Nehemiah — still trying to stop the work in Jerusalem.
And so, my single brothers and sisters,
Please learn this lesson:
If you marry someone who is not a Christian, you will hurt the work of God.
If you marry someone who is not a Christian, you will hurt the work of God.
Maybe your husband or wife will not be actively opposing the work of the church,
But your work, your effectiveness cannot help but be affected.
Back when I was single (and I was single for a long time), I didn’t realize how much a wife would change my life.
And I wasn’t naïve! I wasn’t blind!
I knew that being married would change my life drastically,
But I didn’t realize how much.
Today, after only being married for 21 months, I am a very, very different person than I was before.
My values have changed.
My lifestyle has changed.
My attitude has changed.
But fortunately, my wife is a godly Christian woman who loves the Lord and these changes have helped me live my Christian life,
and I believe that these changes have made me a better Christian worker.
But imagine if my wife was not a Christian.
Imagine if she was the enemy of God (and remember, everyone who isn’t a Christian is God’s enemy);
My values still would have changed.
My lifestyle still would have changed.
My attitude still would have changed,
But instead of being influenced and changed by a godly Christian woman who wants me to grow in my faith,
I would have been influenced and changed by the enemy of God!
If you’re not married, you can’t understand how much your spouse will change you,
But please believe me: you will change!
you will be changed by your spouse!
And you know what really bothers me when I see it?
It’s when Christian men and women know this;
They know that they shouldn’t marry a non-Christian, and they make pledges and vows and promises to never do so,
But then they allow themselves to fall in love with a non-Christian,
and all their convictions; all their promises; all their pledges and vows go right out the window:
"But I love her so much!"
For example: look over at 10:30.
The people are making a binding agreement — they put it in writing and signed their names to it,
And this is part of that agreement:
Nehemiah 10:30 — "We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons."
The people made this promise to God — not to marry people who were not his people.
12 years later, in Nehemiah chapter 13, there are more problems with these enemies of God, and look what was the cause of it:
13:28 — "On of the sons of Joi-ada, son of Eliashib, the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite!
The grandson of the High Priest himself has married the daughter of Sanballat —
— the man who tried and tried to stop God’s work in Jerusalem!
Single people, learn this lesson for yourselves:
Married people, learn this lesson for your children:
If a Christian marries someone who is not a Christian, the work of God will suffer.
Well, let’s move on into chapter 7....
Nehemiah 7:1-3 — After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed. I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do. I said to them, "The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses."
Now, in less than two months, the people of God are secure — protected by a brand-new wall.
But just because the wall was finished, doesn’t mean that the work was finished.
As we see here, just a wall wasn’t good enough: there had to be guards on the wall.
And this is another important lesson for us in the church today:
Things are never enough to do the work of God.
People are always required.
The new wall around Jerusalem was good, but it was worthless without men to guard it.
It still works the same today:
When I was writing this sermon, I immediately thought of our drumset.
Most of you can remember when we first bought our drums,
But for a long time, we couldn’t find a consistent drummer!
And these things were useless without a person to play them.
And so, things are never enough to do the work of God.
People are always required.
And (listen!) money is a thing.
There are Christians who say, "I give my money to the church and the church pays the pastors’ salaries and the pastors do the work!
NO! That is an evil, sinful attitude; a lie told by the Devil.
God doesn’t use money to build his church — he used people.
"Well," you might say, "then why do I give money then?"
We give money for the work of the church because God does use money:
Nehemiah 7:70-72 — Some of the heads of the families contributed to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 drachmas of gold, 50 bowls and 530 garments for priests. Some of the heads of the families gave to the treasury for the work 20,000 drachmas of gold and 2,200 minas of silver. The total given by the rest of the people was 20,000 drachmas of gold, 2,000 minas of silver and 67 garments for priests.
Okay? So it is the responsibility of God’s people to contribute money to the work of the Lord,
But don’t think that it’s your only responsibility —
God doesn’t just want you to give your money to his work —
He wants you to give yourself.
Now, something in verse 2 has always stood out to me:
Hananiah was chosen to be in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother.
And Hananiah wasn’t chosen because he was rich or successful, or even because he was commander of the citadel.
He was chosen to be the leader of God’s people because he was a man of integrity.
And I learn this lesson:
If you live a life of integrity, you will be honored by God and by God’s people.
That’s the beautiful thing about God’s Kingdom —
— you don’t have to be upper class or educated or intelligent or anything else to be honored as a citizen;
you just need to be a man or woman with integrity.
I like what God says in 1 Peter 3:10-13 —
For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?
Hananiah is still remembered today — not because he was rich or powerful, but because he was a man of integrity.
And remember: The true test of your integrity is this:
What do you do when no one is looking?
Let’s move ahead to v. 4 — Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.
Just a short lesson here:
There is plenty of room for more in the Kingdom of God!
There is plenty of room for more in the Church.
There is plenty of room for more people in this congregation!
And, there is work to be done within the Church!
verse 4 tells us that while the wall was now completed, the houses inside the city had not yet been rebuilt.
And it’s still the same in the church today:
There’s work to be done inside the church:
Work to be done in our lives; our faith; our relationship with God.
But not only that — we are inside, but God has given us a command:
To go outside these walls and tell others how they too can come into the City of God and be saved.
Because there’s still plenty of room.
Well, this brings us to the long list of names in verses 5-69.
Verse 5 tells us that God put it in Nehemiah’s heart to make this list of people. But why?
I believe it was to protect the purity of God’s people.
Time after time, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we’re told to watch out for impurities among God’s people:
False teachers, False doctrines,
Wolves in sheep’s clothing, False gods,
False spirits, False Christians...
And here in Nehemiah chapter 7, God tells Nehemiah to make a list of those who are truly God’s people —
— who can prove it by their genealogy.
Look over in verses 61-64:
The following came up from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon and Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended from Israel: the descendants of Dela-iah, Tobiah and Nekoda. And from among the priests: the descendants of Hoba-iah, Hakkoz and Bar-zillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gilea-dite and was called by that name). These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
So, they had to know who was truly a Jew and who was really not a Jew,
Because God wanted his people to be kept pure.
This is also the purpose of Church Discipline today.
Romans 16:17 — I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
"Keep away from them." Why? To keep the Church pure.
1 Corinthians 5:7, 13 — Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast— as you really are.
v. 13 concludes the thought: "Expel the wicked man from among you."
Why? To keep the Church pure. Because God wants his people to be kept pure.
One last thing that I noticed in chapter 7 — look at verses 66-69:
The whole company numbered 42,360, besides their 7,337 menservants and maidservants; and they also had 245 men and women singers. There were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.
Now, 7:7 tells us that this list is only the men of Israel.
I just find it interesting that they count their donkeys, but not their women.
And I actually thought of a couple of lessons from that, but I decided not to share them today...
And so, as you can see, even though the wall is now completed, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
And in the church today, there’s a lot of work to be done — building up the people inside the church, and
I want to warn you that once we buy this piece of land, the work is still not finished!
