BUILDING UP THE WALL AND I CAN’T COME DOWN
Neh 4
4:1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-burned as they are?"
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building-if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"
Sounds just like Satan, “You can’t build a church in Springtown.”
He wasn’t included in the building program in the beginning of this church and he is still not welcome here.
4 Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."
11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work."
12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!"
21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, "Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day." 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.
NIV
Neh 6:2-3
2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
We’ve got precious souls here and we can’t come down. We’ve got to keep building until we are all safe inside that celestial city.
Don’t you know that it chaps the devil when all his efforts to disrupt what God’s people are trying to do, fail?
There were many opportunities to quit building the wall because of all the opposition, but they just kept on building.
We are always going to face opposition in one way or another, but just stay the course, keep building the wall and some day you will finish the job and get the reward.
Building walls is very hard work, but if you want to keep the enemy out and you and your family inside safe and sound then you must keep your sword attached to your side and your work gloves on.
Walls have more than one purpose. One is to keep the enemy out, and the other to keep you safe inside.
Material used in building your wall is very important.
The wall is going to have to be built with material that that the enemy can not break through.
Let the material you use be bathed in the blood of Jesus. Let your faith, works, determination, all of your efforts be based on what Jesus did at Calvary.
Satan can not come through the blood, so the safest place to be is covered in the blood of Jesus.
Isa 26:1 says that its;
Salvation (that) God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
They didn’t use pebbles. They used rocks. Rocks that they knew would keep the enemy out.
What are you doing to keep the enemy away from you and your family?
Are you saved? Do you pray? Are you allowing God to work in your life?
You need to build a wall.
If the first two of the three little pigs had built their house out of stones, like the third did, they would have save themselves a lot of turmoil, fear and almost being eaten.
It’s not a question of whether you will need the wall. It’s a question of when.
1 Peter 5:8-9
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith,
This power comes only through your relationship with Christ.
Building your relationship with Christ takes more than an occasional visit to church and glancing at the Word of God every once and a while.
If you want to keep the enemy out, then its going to take utilizing faith, prayer, its going to take being busy about the Master’s business.
Its going to take a working faith in God.
To fall away, give up, backslide, quit or just have a loose relationship would mean that there must be a hole or breech in your wall.
If you will add these ingredients to your mortar, there will be no battering ram or any weapon that the devil can use to get through your wall.
2 Peter 1:5-11
add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Neh 6:15-16
15 So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.
16 And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.
We have to build Godly families.
You say give me a hammer.
But I say, “you don’t need a hammer, you need a weapon (sword).
How do you build Godly families? Through godliness.
1. Help them develop an intimate relationship with Jesus.
2. Teach them to pray and praying with them.
3. Teach them the art of warfare and provide the weapons for them, which are faith, endurance, aggression, prayer, and THE WORD.
How do you build a godly church? With godly families.
How do you keep it godly? By adhering to godly preaching, utilizing the altars, focusing on them as our meeting place rather than the foyer or the pews.
Exercising our spiritual man daily through prayer and the Word so we can utilize the power that comes from that to keep our church free from the outside influences that would corrupt this holy place.
Develop a relationship with Christ and when Satan approaches God about you, he will have to say;
Job 1:10
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?
