Sermon Tone Analysis

REPAIRING THE BREECH

\\ And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province/ are/ in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also/ is/ broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned/ certain/ days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.

We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying,/ If/ ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But/ if/ ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven,/ yet/ will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

Now these/ are/ thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Nehemiah 1:3-11

 

Our title is synonymous with our theme for the year “Repairing the Breech”

 

We have come to a special time when God calls people to become special for His purpose.

Shall we pray.

Our story begins with Nehemiah not a priest, but a servant of the most high.

See some folk feel that in order to be special you have to be a preacher or some one who is called to the conference or somebody who holds church office.

Nehemiah was neither of those but he felt the calling of God.

A cupbearer to the King Artaxerxes Longimanus,” who in effect held the throne of Persia from 464 to 423 BC.

The problem stated in verse 3 is a response from the question of verse 2.  The destruction here was not that which was done by King Nebuchadnezzar but something that happened more recently.

Verses 2 and 3 read

that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped /and /had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.

They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.”

Nehemiah 1:2-3

 

Hanani’s report focuses on Wall and the gates of Jerusalem.

The wall and gates.

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientists this morning to recognize what a wall is use for and what a gate is used for.

But because of the description of scripture the wall that Hanani is talking about is Jerusalem is not completely broken down it was just that parts of the wall needed simple repairs while others needed to be restructured completely.

We know that because the time scripture mentions it took Nehemiah to rebuild the wall in 52 days that it would have been impossible to rebuild that wall in such a short time if it was completely destroyed.

Sister’s Tuckette and Freeman .

.   .

Likewise not all of the gates in Jerusalem had been broken down or burned by fire.

And like the wall in Jerusalem some of the gates had to be completely restructured while others just needed only repairs.

Much like the city wall and its gates back in the days of Nehemiah are our Christian experiences our situations in which we live, surrounded by and are a part of and our church as a denomination and organization.

The city wall and its gates are much like our Christian experiences because in some areas we are sound and strong in others we are weak and broken down then in others there needs just a little adjustment.

Jesus gave example of this when He told the religious rulers of His day \\ \\

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

Matthew 23:23

 

If truth be told I believe many of us including myself would see as the Holy Spirit Spotlight shine on our souls many areas that need tweaking, others that need adjusting and some that need total restructuring!

If fact when we walk with God in our Christian experience that’s what happens!

We talked about that this Wednesday night wanting to have a closer walk with God.

Moses – pardon our iniquity and our sin

 

Daniel -  when the Prophet Daniel beheld an angel God’s glory second hand he said “There remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength.”

Paul said as far as he was concerned touching the righteousness of the law he was blameless

But when his heart was converted when he met Jesus on the road called straight when he beheld the glory of the Lord and had a closer walk with Jesus he exclaimed “chief of sinners though I be!”

Isaiah when he was taken up in vision to the heavenly realm said

 

Then said I, Woe/ is/ me! for I am undone; because I/ am/ a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 6:5

 

When we have a closer walk with God we discover the breeches!

Problem is that there are too many Christians looking at the strong parts of the wall and the few standing gates in their relationship.

We may have flattered ourselves, as did Nicodemus, that our life has been upright, that our moral character is correct, and think that we need not humble the heart before God, like the common sinner: but when the light from Christ shines into our souls, we shall see how impure we are; we shall discern the selfishness of motive, the enmity against God, that [BEGIN P.29] has defiled every act of life.

Then we shall know that our own righteousness is indeed as filthy rags, and that the blood of Christ alone can cleanse us from the defilement of sin, and renew our hearts in His own likeness.[1]

Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

Nehemiah is talking about the earthly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that existed in his day.

Not the New Jerusalem the one that Jesus is constructing in glory.

Of that He says

 

“I go and prepare a place for you!”

The author of Hebrews said that Abraham

 

“For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker/ is/ God.” Hebrews 11:10

 

The new Jerusalem is perfect!

The one Jesus is doing is without fault or flaw.

But the earthly Jerusalem is the one Nehemiah is concerned about.

That’s the one with the flaws.

Nothing that man does is perfect, nothing about us or what we build with these hands is perfect!

Only what God does, only what Jesus does!

Our problem as Christians is we see the breeches and we see the parts of the walls that need fixing (and they do need fixing!) and we see the gates that are broken but many times that is in the lives of others!

John Henry Newman once said

“The trouble with a lot of us is we each want to be human, but we’re expecting everybody else to be perfect.”

If only the pastor and the elders would .

.  .

If only my wife or husband were  .    .

.

If only my parents or my children would .

.   .

Under the authority of God’s Word the repairing of the breech has to start with me!

There is a breech in all of us there are cracks in the wall, sin in the life, yes that’s right I said sin in life that we need God to identify in us!

 

Jesus taught that very same thing when He gave in the well known text of Matthew 7 an enormous amount of irony.

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.

“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

 

Repairing the Breech means to start with self and God.

Then we need to repair the breech with man our relationship with mankind.

First we think about or relationship with each other.

How are we to stand in that day?!

Because we see the holes in the walls of others and the broken down gates of others!

If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others we shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same spirit will flow out to others.

We should love and respect one another, notwithstanding the faults and imperfections that we cannot help seeing.[2]

I’m not talking about Church discipline here.

That’s a whole different sermon.

That’s another topic there are times when the church must act against sin and not the sinner.

But we’ll preach about that another time!

But Christ reveals one important aspect that we as Christians should never forget.

Our relationship with others reveals our attitude about Jesus!

 

Jesus Himself said

 

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done/ it/ unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done/ it/ unto me.

Matthew 25:40

 

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did/ it/ not to one of the least of these, ye did/ it/ not to me.

Matthew 25:45

 

One scribe the Bible says answered Jesus by saying

 

And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love/ his/ neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Mark 12:32-34

 

We become irritated at the slightest and simplest things.