Bricks And Steel (Nehemiah 4:15-23)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A. Preliminaries
A. Preliminaries
Good Morning.
Please turn with me in your Bibles to the fourth chapter of Nehemiah. The text for the sermon this morning will bein at verse 15, and continue through the rest of the Chapter. You can find it on Page 471 of the Bibles in your pews.
B. Review
B. Review
By way of review, the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem has commenced, and it’s come under significant threat. Mockery, intimidation, and threats.
And as we saw last week, Nehemiah called the people to steady faithfulness with these words in verse 14:
“Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
The returned exiles were rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls under constant threat from hostile neighbors.
As we saw last week, their enemies’ strategy was mockery and intimidation, but Nehemiah’s response was prayer, watchfulness, and leadership.
So Nehemiah strategizes how to be obedient to God in the work before them, and how to be mindful of the threats.
C. Sermon Text
C. Sermon Text
Let’s go to our text.
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.” So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God!
D. Opening Illustration
D. Opening Illustration
One of the images or tropes of early American frontier life was that cabins or barns would be built with a rifle leaning inside the door, within arm’s reach. And the idea there is clear enough—there’s work to be done. There are fields to plow. There are kids to raise. But the the threats and dangers are real.
And there are parallels there for our spiritual lives. There’s both an defensive and an offensive aspect to our calling in Christ. There’s building and there is fighting.
And you’ve experienced this if you’ve been a Christian for some time, and even if you’re a new Christian you’ve probably had a sense of this already.
You’re trying to build a godly marriage with good communication and conflict resolution skills, but that also means watching out for temptations, and defending and guarding yourself.
Or you’re raising kids in the faith, but you’re also being mindful of the opposition of wickedness around you in the wider culture.
Or you’re part of the ministry of this local church, and you’re helping others to grow, and you’re learning how to use your home to bless people, and so on. But you’re also fighting your own sin, or your own temptations to division, or discouragement.
Here’s my point: “The Christian life is never simply peaceful construction. It is always construction in a war zone.”
And that reality is reaffirmed for us this morning in Nehemiah 4.
E. Sermon Points
E. Sermon Points
And there are at least three things I want to how you from this text this morning as we finish up Chapter 4:
First, There is a call Work and Build
Second, There is a call to Build and Fight
Third, There is a Call to Fight with Faith
F. Sermon Prayer
F. Sermon Prayer
Let’s Pray
O heavenly Father: Your law is indeed perfect, converting the soul; a sure testimony, giving wisdom to the unlearned, and enlightening the eyes. Enlighten our blind intellect by your Holy Spirit, so that we may truly understand and profess your law and live according to it. You have revealed the mysteries of your will only to the little ones; and you look to him who is of a humble and contrite spirit, who has reverence for your Word. So grant us a humble spirit and keep us from all fleshly wisdom, which is enmity against you. We ask this from you, most merciful Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Based on a Prayer by Martin Micronius)
I. A Call to Work and Build
I. A Call to Work and Build
So Nehemiah makes that rousing call to faithfulness at the end of our passage last week, and now I want you to notice the next few verses:
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.
Notice in verse 15: They had the opportunity to relax in the work. God has frustrated the plan of our enemies! Time to chill! But that’s instead when they really got to work.
There’s a principle there that we need to make sure we grasp—if God slows the work of the wicked, and blesses the work of his people, that’s not the time to put our feet up. It’s the time to press on with the gift we’ve been given.
Many people have noticed that we’re in a weird cultural moment that some have called a “vibe shift,” where, since the recent presidential election, it seems like there’s been a culture shift that’s more favorable toward Christianity or virtue. And to whatever extent that’s true, there’s a temptation to relax or check out. But the fact is that those are times when we need to strategize and ask “What is the good work we can do in the moment God has given us?”
And sometimes Christians are afraid to talk about doing good work. That smells too much like legalism. So we tend to shy away from it. But the fact is that there are calls to good work all over the New Testament.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Hear the call there as well as the encouragement.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Again, you hear the command, matched with the encouragement and the blessing.
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
This is funny, because we tend to think of faith and eternal life as something that happens to us, not as something we fight for or take hold of. Do you really fight for gifts? Well in a mysterious sense, Yes! We are objectively given faith and eternal life as a gift from God. And yet we also fight for it. We strive for it. We war against doubt. We answer our own unbelief with promises. We grab onto eternal life and refuse to let go. And with every step we are assured that it is not our might or power, but by the Holy Spirit that we remain.
One more text:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
My point in showing these texts to you is to remind us that God in His Word, and throughout all His Words, is not afraid to call us to good work.
On this, Derek W.H. Thomas observes
Duty, honor, obedience, loyalty, stick-ability or stick-to-it-iveness—these sound old-fashioned and out of place within the orbit of spiritual growth and maturity. No one in his right mind would question these attributes in a soldier or a politician or a doctor, of course, for whom they are frequently hailed as laudable markers worthy of praise and emulation. But as qualities of the Christian life, they are often disparaged as legalistic and insufficiently reflective of our “unconditional” acceptance within the family of God. Consequently, the Christian life is viewed too passively, without the marshaling verbs calling the Christian to action and perseverance. But this is to distort the relationship between justification and sanctification. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God is at work in us.
-DWHT
This is really important for us to get clear: Calls to work hard are not legalism. Legalism is when you start saying that you can work your way into God being pleased with you, or thinking that you can do anything to work your way into salvation or prepare yourself for salvation. That’s legalism.
But sounding too much like Paul or James or Jesus in our calls to to do what God has called us to with gladness and hopeful joy--that’s not legalism. That’s just Christianity.
We must be clear here--that all the strength we have to actually do God’s work must come from God himself. It must be God’s work done in God’s way. It must be done under the Word, shoulder to shoulder, and covered in prayer. But it is, at the end of the day, good work.
So, first there is a Call to Work and Build
Second there is
II. A Call to Build and Fight
II. A Call to Build and Fight
And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.” So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.
So we find here that all the builders carried weapons while they worked: a sword at their side, and tools in their hands.
And you see in verse 21 that their labor schedule ran from dawn to dusk. And the end of the chapter shows just how serious they were: they didn’t even take off their clothes to sleep, always armed, always alert.
And this passage has led to a common image in Christianity, that of a sword and a trowel together or a sword and a shovel. It has long been a popular Christian symbol. Charles Spurgeon used it in 1865 as the title of his outreach magazine. New St. Andrews College uses it as their logo. John Bunyan alludes to it in his allegory called The Holy War where the city is protected by both warriors and builders.
And I think we know the work of fighting. Spiritual warfare? We know that! But building we talk less about. And I think that’s actually the central reason why so much of American Evangelicalism is so impoverished. We know how to talk about fighting but we don’t know how to talk about building.
We know how to fight a culture war. We know how to fight for sound doctrine. We know how to fight on social media. But do we know how to build? Do we know how to pick up a shovel? Do we know how to build strong biblical households that love God’s design for the family and that train up the next generation of faithful Christians? Do we know how to build habits, traditions, and liturgies that we can pass on? Do we know how to build institutions, ministries, and families? And once we’ve built them, do we know how to keep them?
And there’s something we can all learn here, adults and children too. Kids, can you picture these workers who had a shovel in one hand and a sword in the other?
You’ve probably had the experience of trying to carry too many things at once. Like trying to carry a toy and a cup of water and a snack? And you really have to think hard while carrying everything. Well these people in Nehemiah’s day had to keep working with their tools, and they had to carry their swords, too. And God was teaching them that being His child means both building and fighting. You build by helping your family, by obeying Mom and Dad, by being kind to your brothers and sisters and friends. And you fight by saying ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to Jesus.
The challenge before all of us is that we are a people made to build and made to fight. Sometimes people only want to fight. They just want to fight all the time, they’ve got a very aggressive and feisty spirit. And that can lead to arrogance and brashness.
Sometimes people only want to build. You can hear this in language like “Oh, we don’t want to talk about what we’re against. We only want to talk about what we are for.” We don’t want to make people uncomfortable, we only want to be hospitable all the time.
But if the last 40 years of cultural rot have taught us anything it is that those who only want to hold space will always get compromised by those who are willing to fight. So we must do both.
So we have a call to work and build, and a call to build and fight. Finally, there is
III. A Call to Fight with Faith
III. A Call to Fight with Faith
Nehemiah had constructed a plan for what might happen. He wasn’t given any revelation of what would happen, but he was making plans based on what might happen. He equipped his people to be ready for what might be. He had no vision or dream or word of revelation form heaven that they were going to get attacked, but he did have a brain and wisdom, so he made sure he was ready.
And I think there’s a good lesson here: We should be mindful of how we will be tempted, and plan to fight it accordingly.
And if you don’t know how you will be tempted, ask a close friend. Ask your spouse. Ask your family. They probably know. They just don’t want to tell you without an invitation.
John Huss is often considered one of the forerunners of the Reformation. He was Martin Luther before Martin Luther was born. He died about 100 years before Luther would nail his 95 Theses on the Church door in Wittenberg.
He knew that his ideas would soon enough put him on the wrong side of the church authorities. He knew that he was destined to be burned at the stake for his teaching. So sometimes, in the evenings, he would place his hand over a fire to prepare for his final test. He burned himself in preparation. Because he wanted to be faithful to the end.
Now it is hard to imagine someone saying “Oh, Brother John. Why are you doing all that? Don’t you trust God? Why don’t you just trust God to give you the strength when your day comes?”
I think if someone had said that, they would have been rightly told to shut their mouth and stop being silly.
But we talk that way sometimes! Oh, don’t bother with preparation, just trust the Lord!
But preparation is where the Holy Spirit works just as much as the moment of action.
Nehemiah made plans, had a strategy, and trained his people for the moment of testing.
In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
So everyone put down their swords right? God’s going to fight after all. You hear that boys? We can just let go and let God!
Brothers and Sisters, we are happy Calvinists. We believe unashamedly, unapologetically in the total sovereignty of God. God is in control of everything and everything means everything. There is not one maverick molecule in the universe.
And yet, God’s promises are never an invitation to passivity.
I don’t wonder if Nehemiah was humming Psalm 127 in the hardest moments.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
The Lord must be the one who builds. And we bank our faith and hope on the reality that he is and he will. Look again at verse 20: “Our God will fight for us.”
This is the Gospel. Nehemiah’s encouragement points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater builder, and the greater fighter.
The one who built our salvation by offering His own life on the cross. The one who fought the greatest enemy of sin and death and won by rising from the dead.
We can build only because of what Christ has already built. We can fight only because he has already fought. And because He has finished His work, our work in Him is never in vain. So when you are weary, when the shovel feels heavy and the sword feels heavier still, remember: Christ has done the hardest work. He has fought and He has won. And now we labor, not to earn God’s love, but because we already have it in Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So we are called to trust in the Master Builder. He is the one building this house, and the whole household of faith. He is the one building your house. He is the one building your faith and your children’s faith. The Lord is the one at work!
But this is not a call to passivity. It is a call to build and to fight. A call to work and to watch. We are watchful over ourselves, and we do try to strategize, what’s the best way to use my resources for the Kingdom in the moment I’ve been given? It’s the central question that’s going to drive our Session Advance this Fall.
We also are watchful of the enemy’s schemes. How’s he at work right now? Not so much on the national or global stage, most of you need to hold off pondering that until you’ve settled on the particular ways that he’s working on you. Whether it’s your pride or your lust or your self-pity or your nagging or your despising of authority, or your just plain old run of the mill bad attitude.
We are mindful of the work of our enemy in the world. And we are not ignorant of his devices. The world, the flesh, the devil—these are real enemies.
But we start with our own hearts and our own households first.
And finally, we are watchful for the day when our Savior will return and he will bring down with him a perfected Jerusalem with imperishable gates.
Until then we hold fast to our confession: Our God will fight for us.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
