Sermons

Hey, good morning, Trinity. I think the first time it was a good morning, too, but it's good to be with you. Back-to-back is my privilege, and we're in Nehemiah again. Chapter 4 is the object of our attention. Texas was tricky, you know, that fine Texas hospitality that my family got to experience all week. And the weather was not that bad. So, but I was not fooled. I know, I know what's coming. And one breezy week does not trick me. So, I've been here enough times that I cannot be deceived.

So, but it was a lovely week and grateful to be with you last Sunday, and good to be with the men at the Men's Bible Study on Thursday. That was a real treat, and the privilege of interacting with some of you. It's just been a good week. I'm always grateful for your faith and the work that God is doing here, and it's a real privilege to think carefully together about the work of the Lord, the work of the Word, the work of God's people, and to consider an ancient case of that work.

And that's exactly what we're doing in Nehemiah chapter 4, as we encounter not the first opposition that the work has faced, the entire project was under peril at the outset, right? As Nehemiah faced off with Artaxerxes and sought the Lord's favor in prayer, but here the attack becomes far more serious and significant.

So, let's read together Nehemiah chapter four. And I learned last week that when the chapter's this long, I'm not gonna make you stand up. So, you can sit there, and you can revere the Word of God without standing up. So, I'm gonna read to you, and you can follow along. Nehemiah chapter four, verse one.

(Scripture reading) "Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that? Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, yes, 'What are they building? If a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.'

Hear, O God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

So, we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward, and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as protection against them day and night.

In Judah, it was said, ‘the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There's too much rubble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall.’ And our enemy said, ‘they will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.’ At that time, the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, you must return to us.

So, in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, 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.

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 own 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." (End)

This is the very Word of the living God. Let's pray.

(Prayer) Father, thank You for Your Word. Would you show us, reveal to us, by opening our eyes, that we might behold wonderful things from Your Word. Show us truths about ourselves that remain covered. Show us ways, our own ways, that need to be reexamined. And ultimately, God, show us Yourself. Give us a clarified vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect leadership, Your flawless, sovereign rule over all things, and motivate us, God, to serve You with a renewed spirit, we ask in Jesus' matchless name, amen. (End)

Well, how do you understand opposition? How do you think about it when it comes into your sphere? When the work that you're doing is opposed, how do you consider it? When you are attacked, when you're undermined, when you're criticized, when you're mocked, if you've been lied about, how does that affect you?

I think that there's a tendency to interpret opposition as God's disapproval. Resistance to us usually means maybe we need to go another way. Difficulty is sometimes understood by us to be a lack of blessing. And so, my question is, is do you assume the blessing of God must be lifted from your work when you face opposition? I don't think it's an abnormal way of thinking. We all want to choose the path of least resistance, and we all want to be sensitive to why we're being opposed.

And so, whatever you're doing to serve the Lord, whatever God has called you to do in your work, in your family, in your vocation, in ministry, in this church, whatever it is that God has called you to do, there will be opposition, there will be difficulty, there will be speed bumps and obstacles and naysayers, and sometimes those things will be mild and sometimes quite severe. And what I want you to think about this morning is how do I understand the presence of opposition to the work of God, whether we're talking about evangelism, whether we're talking about raising your kids in the fear of the Lord, or whether we're talking about honoring the Lord as a good worker in your job, your vocation, your career, it's all under the same banner of what we do, we do unto the Lord. And when somebody comes against us, in our ministries or in the efforts that we put forth by the fruit of our hands to serve the Lord, how do we understand attack? How do we understand someone undermining, someone criticizing, someone mocking, someone lying about?

Because that's what's happening in this chapter. God's people are called to a specific work. They are to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and bring back Jerusalem's former glory. They are to overcome the shame that has marked this city because of her dilapidated defenses. The gates are burned, the walls are in rubble, and by rebuilding these walls, the project was to remove the shame from Jerusalem, to bring her back to be Zion, the city that God chose, the capital of God's people. And now they face significant resistance.

And the temptation is to interpret it as God's disapproval, to think that perhaps the blessing of God must have been lifted from the work, to turn our backs on the work, to step away, to reevaluate, to maybe let someone else take the beating for us. But Nehemiah 4 teaches us to think about opposition more carefully, more biblically. You see, opposition comes to us not because the work is a failure. The opposition comes because the work is a success. The opposition increases because the Lord is actually blessing the work and because God is blessing the work and that success is rising, opposition will also rise.

As we read in chapter four, the breaches, the broken-down places of the walls are being fixed. The walls of Jerusalem are beginning to be restored. And because God's work is going forward, the enemies of God's people, as we see in verse one, are becoming enraged. They're furious to see the progress.

And that's why this chapter is a chronicling of the war behind the work. That's our title this morning, the war behind the work, what Nehemiah 4 teaches God's people about opposition. To say it in a sentence, when God's people face opposition, we need to respond with steadfast faith because it's God himself who fights for us. And what this chapter will do is it will teach us what our expectations should be for opposition to God's work.

Because there will be people who will stand and point their figures, fingers, these are called fingers, point their fingers at what God is doing in this church and they'll seek to denigrate it, to tear it down, to question it, to belittle it, there will be people that you encounter in your life who will do the same to your faith and your efforts to serve the Lord. They will make you feel small and inadequate and stupid. They will try to bring failure about by discouragement. And this chapter stands as an example of how to stand. How to trust in the sovereignty of God and how to keep working and serving and faithfully following God's calling in your life.

God's work will always face opposition, but God's people must respond with steadfast faith because it is the Lord who fights for us. This chapter is neatly divided for us by Nehemiah himself. It uses this Hebrew word for hearing, three times, in verse one, now when Sanballat heard, and then again in verse seven, when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashtodites heard, in verse seven, and then again, the enemies are said to hear, in verse 15. It's not the only uses of the word heard in this chapter, but these three are all marked by something the enemies are hearing.

And it's those three waves of opposition that mark this chapter and walk us through what it means to be opposed in your work for the Lord and how we should think about it, how we should proceed knowing that we will face resistance in our lives and in our work. This is not something unusual. This is not something old covenant. This is not something just for wall building projects exclusively.

Acts 14:22, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Opposition is not an exception.

It is standard fare for God's people. And as we look at these three waves of opposition to God's work, we learn to not misinterpret opposition as God's approval or as a lack of God's blessing, but instead, what is ordinary as we seek to serve the Lord, we will face difficulty and criticism, slander and ridicule. We will be mocked and disturbed by God's enemies because they are threatened by the progress of God's work. But we must press on, trusting the Lord.

How do we do it? Let's look at this in these three waves of opposition in Nehemiah chapter four. First, verses one through six. Verses one through six, let's call it. Words cannot stop God's work, so pray and build. Verses one through six, words cannot stop God's work, so pray and build. Verse one, now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. This character, Sanballat, and his kind of dopey wingman, Tobias, Tobiah the Ammonite, we first encountered them in chapter two.

They were the ones who were very disappointed to find out that Nehemiah had filed all his paperwork, and it was in order. He had the backing of the king of Persia, and so their small fiefdoms had no chance of opposing Nehemiah in a military sense. Remember, Nehemiah is rebuilding the wall. He's getting the people to gather their resources and to come together as one to rebuild the city and remove the shame from Jerusalem. These walls are not walls for defense. An eight-foot-thick wall, though impressive, had nothing against the Persian overlords that were authorizing this project. It was simply a matter of honor. To have these walls back, to have their temple back under the ministry of Ezra, was to restore honor to God's people.

Things were still not perfect, Persia still ruled over them, but when we meet Sanballat and Tobiah in chapter two, they are despising and jeering as well. Verse 19, when Sanballat the Hornite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Aaron heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, what is this thing that you're doing? Are you rebelling against the king? They wanted to know if they had their paperwork in order. And sure enough, Nehemiah had authorization. He has been funded by Artaxerxes for this project.

But that doesn't stop the enemies from their first attack. And their first attack is ridicule. Sanballat hears that the Jews are rebuilding and his anger escalates. He's displeased. The anger on display in chapter two is intensified because the project is moving forward with great success. Remember, this is a building project that according to chapter six will be completed in 52 days. And so Sanballat hears this rebuilding, the reorganization, the steadiness of the work, and it only increases his outrage.

And like so many mockers, he doesn't actually talk to the Jews. He jeers at them, verse two, and said in the presence of his brothers and the army of Samaria. You know, mockery and ridicule always land best with sympathetic ears. He's talking to his fellow haters. He gathers his officials and his military men, and he mocks the Jews and sets out five rhetorical questions intended to get back to them and to cut them down. They are having an internal meeting to talk about how stupid this wall project is. And everybody's gonna nod and agree and kind of chip in on the idea.

What are these feeble Jews doing? The word translated feeble speaks of something that is withered, something decayed, like a flower that's dying. Sanballat sees the Jewish people as a fading people, a weak remnant, a people that everyone should despise. And so, he asks his five questions. Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? In other words, are they going to pray this wall back up? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, burned as they are?

And every single one of those questions is aimed at undermining morale. Nehemiah has done so much planning and careful preparation. He has rallied the people, and they have been organized into their family groups as we saw in chapter three. And they are making good and godly progress. But the enemies, the opposers, are going after their weakness.

He mocks their worship. He undermines their timeline. He says their materials are inadequate, the burned stones. And then his sidekick adds the punchline. If a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. Ha, ha, ha! That's what they got going. Everyone laughed at this dumb joke about the fox. What's a fox? A fox is light like a cat. The point is obvious. They're feeble and their work is pathetic. What would you say?

I mean the joke is dumb. I know I could do a better joke. I know I could be more sarcastic. I know I could go after Sandballot because his name is dumb. And if that didn't work, I got mama jokes for days. I went to public school in Albuquerque. I can go.

And our tendency in this situation is to hit back in like manner, right? You mock God, you mock God's work, and we know, Galatians 6, 9, God will not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, and we think, all right, I'm gonna reap and sow right now. You're gonna catch this comedy act. You're gonna catch this sarcasm, and you're gonna threaten me, and I'm gonna threaten you right back. You're gonna undermine and ridicule me? I wanna answer in kind.

But that's not what Nehemiah does. These jokers are mocking God's people, and they're mocking the work that God has called them to. And instead of hitting them back with, we're backed by the Persian king and you guys are dummies, Nehemiah in verse four utters yet another prayer. Another prayer. And it's so abrupt. Look at verse four. There's no, and so Nehemiah dusted himself off and went to his room and kind of gathered his stuff and thought about it and prayed. It doesn't say that.

In the face of all this mockery, of all these lies, of all this animosity and acid that they're spewing at God's people, verse four says, “hear, Oh our God.” Playing on that same word in verse one, the enemies heard the wall was being built and Nehemiah knows that it's not just the progress that's being heard about, it's not just the ridicule that's being reported to them and the undermining of the work, but God is listening to all of it and he entrusts himself to the omnipresent God who hears the prayers of His people when they are opposed, when they are despised, when they are ridiculed, and he says, “hear, O our God, hear me, for we are despised.” Sanballat has heard there's progress. Now Yahweh will hear about this resistance and this opposition.

Nehemiah does not unload on the mockers. He doesn't mock with the same kind of venom he's been mocked with. Instead, he unloads to God on the mockers. His prayer is severe because their mockery is not merely personal. They are despising the work and people of God. Nehemiah leaves the vindication not to the sharpness of his wit, or his tongue, or his military strategy, or of a PR campaign. He doesn't care about his personal reputation.

He cares about honoring the work of God, and so he takes his troubles, he takes the mockery, he takes the opposition, and he gives it straight to God. What an awesome lesson for us to learn about how God's work works in the face of opposition. Words cannot stop God's work.

They're just words, and since you were a kid, people said, sticks and stones can break my bones, but words cannot hurt me, right? It's true, sticks and stones can break bones, but words do hurt. And what we do with those words of criticism those belittling kind of words, those mocking kind of words, words that can come from outside of God's people, and sometimes inside those who claim to be God's people. When those words hit us, they sting.

And having a spiritual enough response to take those things to God, to pray, and entrust our reputations and our work to the Lord is the great challenge at the outset. And it’s exactly what Nehemiah does so well. Hear, O our God, that we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Give them a taste of what we've been through. Turn their taunt back on their heads. Verse five is maybe a difficult prayer for a new covenant believer to understand. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

It's a reminder that Nehemiah had good theology. He understood that the reason he was on God's side was not because of something in him or in the people, but it was because of mercy that is found solely in the covenant love of Yahweh. He understood that the reason their sins were blotted out from their sight is not because they were good and obedient people. Their exile from the land, their destroyed city is all the evidence you need of the Jews' culpability, of their sinfulness. But Nehemiah understood how God treated sin when it meets his mercy. It was to be covered and blotted out and forgiven. The anger of God abated.

And Nehemiah is simply recognizing in this imprecatory prayer, which we find in the book of Psalms and all over the Bible, honestly, that there is a kind of prayer, not that seeks to exclude our enemies from salvation, but that seeks to understand that ultimately everything comes down to allegiance to God.

You are either for or against him. And these haters have made clear that they're against him. And so, Nehemiah underlines that reality in his prayer to God and says, our guilt's been covered, theirs is not. Our sin's been blotted out, theirs is not. They have provoked anger in your presence, and you have abated anger from your presence and taken your wrath away from us because of your loving kindness.

Nehemiah basically reminds himself and all who hear his prayer that he's on God's side, and he reminds God that he's on God's side. Leaves everything else up to the justice of a Holy God. And friends, it's so hard to do that. I wanna answer back. We wanna punch when we're punched. We want to seek vindication when we're lied about.

But Nehemiah leaves it to God. He gives it to God in prayer. He entrusts ultimate vindication to Yahweh, and he knows what hasn't been written in Romans 12 yet, but Nehemiah gets it, vengeance is mine, leave it to God. His prayer is severe because their mockery is not merely personal, they're despising the work of God and the people of God, but Nehemiah wisely leaves his vindication in the hands of God because the work belongs to God, the people belong to God, you belong to God, let him defend you.

And then verse six gives us the other side. Nehemiah prays, but he doesn't put down his shovel, his trowel, or the bricks. Verse six, so we built the wall. Words cannot stop God's work, friends. The wall rises to half its height because the people had a mind to work. And if they were consumed with criticism and consumed with fear and consumed with the opposition, instead of prayerful and diligent, the work would not continue.

And that's the temptation, to just either answer back sinfully or give it to God exclusively. But here is this wonderful combination that is really a theme of this chapter that the sovereignty of God is the backstop of everything that they're doing, that they're gonna give this to God, but that doesn't mean that they're gonna sit and wait, but they keep on working to think all this could have been stopped by words, just words. Because that's sometimes all it takes to undermine and dishearten God's people.

But a combination of prayer, devotion to God's ultimate vindication and acknowledgement of God's sovereignty, combined with a diligent mind to work. I mean, is that a great verse for raising your kids? A mind to work and put it up alongside of a commitment to God's blessing in this prayer, that's an unbeatable combination. Ridicule could do so much damage unless it's answered with prayer and perseverance. Prayer and perseverance. And so, words cannot stop God's work.

And so, they pray and they build, incredible. Derek Kidner says it this way, the Christian, while he's been shown a better answer to evil, can learn from Nehemiah to look to God, not himself for vindication, for he was silent under the taunts, and not for a moment to accept the world's low estimate of his calling. Let me give that to you again more simply. The Christian can learn from Nehemiah to look to God, not to himself for vindication and not for a moment to accept the world's low estimate of his calling.

Words cannot stop God's work, so we pray and build. I love it. It's so helpful. Don't spend your life answering critics. Leave the critics to marinate in their own hate and lies. Take your hurt to God, let him vindicate you, and do your work. What are words gonna do?

Second wave of opposition we meet in verse seven. It's not over, it's relentless. And this one is called, fear must not rule God's people, so remember the Lord and fight. Fear must not rule God's people, so remember the Lord and fight. Where is the place of fear?

Verse seven, when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashtodites, just so you know, that is a depiction of all the surrounding directions of the city of Jerusalem. These enemies are coming from every direction, from the north, from the west, the east, the south, everywhere around them, they are surrounded by opposition.

And when this omnidirectional opposition hears, there's that key word again, that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward, and the breaches, the holes, the gaps were beginning to be closed, the heights of the walls were raising, they were very angry. And so, progress has continued, opposition has continued as well, and the anger of the opposition is on the increase. The anger of chapter two is compounded in chapter four, verse one, and now in chapter four, verse eight, what was angry before is now very angry. And so, they have plotted to come together and fight against Jerusalem to cause confusion. They have determined that this will be stopped. The opposition escalates; the enemies hear the walls are being restored.

That's a beautiful Hebrew word there, by the way, in verse 7, the repairing of the walls. The word is, in other places in the Old Testament, used for healing, like of a physical wound. As an injury is restored to full health, that's the picture of what's happening to these walls. The shame and scorn that Jerusalem received in their exile and in their banishment and in the defeat of their city is being healed like a wound. The wounded city is beginning to be whole again.

And this makes the enemies furious. They surround Jerusalem, Sanballat, Samaria is the north, Ammonites the east, Arabs south, Ashdites west, pressure from every side. Their strategy is no longer just exclusively for words and mockery, but now they want to throw the city into confusion. They launch a plan of attack to throw it into chaos. In reality, they cannot, in any long-term, sustainable way, attack the city of Jerusalem because these fiefdoms will be crushed by Persia, but Artaxerxes, or Susa as I like to call it, is a ways away. And it's gonna take a minute for the Pony Express, Ancient Near Eastern style, to get there and say, hey, the city got attacked, but they know better than to attack. And so, this is mostly just trying an attempt to rattle their swords and to put the people in a place of fear and confusion.

The opposition is on the increase. Yet another reminder that God's people are always going to face threats. They're always gonna face things that will undermine their confidence. The mockery that we face requires no facts. It seeks to disunify, make you unsure and decisive. But this rage feels physically threatening to God's people.

And so Sanballat brings out pure theater here. He's already spoken to his sycophants, the audience, and told his jokes to them and mocked the Jews, but now he's involving a parade of soldiers to go along with his mocking questions. He's gathered allies and these crowds of opposition are supposed to gather their attention.

And verse nine gives the theology of this whole chapter. So, we prayed to God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. Prayed to God and set a guard. And here we find yet again that perfect combination of a full trust in the sovereignty of Almighty God and a full expression of diligence and responsibility in human activity.

And this is so balanced that it's hard for us to even sit on this horse. We wanna fall off one of these sides, don't we? Some of us lean towards anxiety and responsibility and an awareness that we gotta fix this. If we don't fix it, nobody will. We gotta work this thing.

And some of us are so theologically impressive that we are not prone towards anxiety, but we're prone towards, it's sovereignty. I became a Calvinist in the old days. I'm reformed, I'm not worried. I'm also not very active. I'm just gonna let God do everything, he'll work it out.

I'm over here and Psalm 115.3, God is in heaven, he does whatever he pleases. So, I'm gonna do whatever I please. Sweet tea sounds good. Or I'm over here pulling out my hair. Because sure, sure, sure, sure, God's sovereign, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I gotta get it done.

But here's Nehemiah, right between those two poles. Understanding that he sets a guard and he prays. What if prayer and preparation go together? What if preparation is inadequate without prayer. What we find in Nehemiah's example is he faces this second wave of opposition intended to bring the people into a place of chaos, panic, and fear. Nehemiah is not panicked, nor is he paralyzed. His faith works, his faith watches, and his faith prays, and his faith posts a guard but that doesn't mean that this won't have an effect on the countenance and morale of the people.

Verse 10 has a lament in it. Israel Loken calls this a lament, a prayerful longing for deliverance and expression of sorrow. Verse 10, in Judah it was said, so Judah, this is the workers that are building the wall. These are the people who are listed in chapter three.

The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. That word strength speaks of exhaustion. They're at their very end. The work is of difficulty, extreme difficulty. And they're recognizing that some of the words of the critics have some truth to them. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we'll not be able to rebuild the wall. They are starting to fade. They've also listened to the enemies, verse 11. And our enemies said, they will not know or see until we come among them and kill them and stop the work. The threats are real. The ridicule was one thing, but now they're threatening their families.

And at that time, the Jews who lived near them, remember chapter three consisted of the towns and villages that surround Jerusalem all coming to be a part of the work, but not everybody came. And now there are perhaps family members and relatives of these workers coming from all directions, just like the enemies came from all directions. And so, the opposition is surrounding them, and it is not just external now, it is also internal. These are their brother Jews who are coming to them 10 times, a Hebrew way of saying, over and over again, repeatedly, in a nonstop kind of a way, you must return to us. Why? Well, because these Enemies have threatened to attack not just Jerusalem, but the families of those workers who are in the city. And they're scared. And so, they go to their brothers and their fathers and they say, you gotta come back home. There's soldiers marching by with ominous and threatening looks.

It's not safe, there's something bad going on. It's like an old west movie, right? There's just something in the town's not right. I wasn't exactly the sound, but you know the one I was trying to make. You know, there's just an ominous kind of danger out there.

You must come home. And what would you do? You're called to build this wall. The purpose of this wall is somewhat defensive, but mostly symbolic. But your actual family is under threat. You could see how easy it was to say, I'm gonna go home. I gotta watch over my family. Not only that, the burden bearers of this work are starting to fade.

The rubble is too much. I had two uncles who were both bricklayers, and they had forearms the size of that keyboard. It's hard work lifting stone, right? And remember, these people are goldsmiths. goldsmiths. I mean, that's some tiny, delicate work. And what are they doing? Clearing rubble. Moving rock. And so, they're starting to sweat here. And the threats are too much. It's not that they're being lazy. They have a mind to work, but they're weary. The rubble is heavy. The work is hard. The threats are real. Fatigue is starting to set in.

The threats are bouncing around in their minds, and they're saying, we're not able. Plus, they're gonna kill our families. And their families are coming and repeating these rumors that they're hearing over and over again. And opposition from the outside starts to manifest itself as discouragement inside these workers.

And so, Nehemiah once again acts. He acts with a incredible combination of prayer and diligence. He stations the people by families and he arms them. He gives them swords and spears and bows. And these ancient bows didn't mess around. They could go hundreds of yards with deadly accuracy. These spears were for a little bit further combat, and swords were for hand to hand. They are fully armed and ready to defend the lowest and most exposed parts of the wall.

They don't need to be afraid. They need to trust the Lord. And one of the ways they're gonna trust the Lord is with a very sharp sword at their side. Again, an incredible combination of human responsibility and a trust in divine sovereignty. Nehemiah equips them and then he speaks to them and he says in verse 14, do not be afraid of them. You only say that if someone's afraid. Do not be afraid of them.

What's the solution? Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. This is a William Wallace kind of a moment. Right? He's got them all stirred up and ready to fight. But before they fight, they must remember.

Remember the Lord great and awesome, because courage comes not primarily from having a really sharp sword. Courage primarily doesn't come from knowing that you can defend yourself, your wife, your children, and your homes. The primary avenue of courage for these workers who are growing fainthearted is to tap into their theology. They don't look first at the sharpness of their sword, or the strength of their bow, or the length of their spear.

They're told to remember, to look to God, remember the Lord, remember his greatness, remember his covenant, remember his awesome power, remember his faithfulness, and then be ready to fight. Fight for your wives, fight for your brothers, fight for your daughters, fight for your homes.

Does this feel like a contradiction to you? It's not. It's called faith. Trust God and take your place on the wall. Remember the Lord and fight for what he has entrusted to you. One of the most stirring and manly and impressive stories in the whole Bible is this speech that Nehemiah gives to these workers. And he teaches them to be ready to fight but fight with this theology of God's awesome power and faithfulness and covenant love at this forefront of their confidence.

But the opposition doesn't stop. A third wave crashes on the shore of their work, verses 15 to 23. And it's here where we note vigilance must continue until the work is finished, so keep building. Vigilance must continue until the work is finished, so keep building. In the first section, we learn words cannot stop God's work, so we pray and build. Secondly, faith must not rule God's people, so we remember and we fight, but now vigilance must continue until the work is finished, so keep on building. Verse 15, when our enemies heard, once again, that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan.

This is the theological key of the entire chapter. Behind it all, is the sovereign work of God. Nothing has taken place that hasn't passed through the meticulous realities of God's sovereignty. Everything here has first gone through his hands to the lives of his people. All of this is preordained.

This is key in Nehemiah's understanding of what's happening here. Again, it's not primarily a book about delegation or about good leadership. It's primarily a book about theology. God is the one who frustrated their plans. Yeah, but Nehemiah put him in the wall, and he gave him swords, and he did all this stuff. But where does the credit always go to? That hard work, that diligence, that prayerful dependence, but all glory always goes to God. The enemy's here, the work continues.

Even though the people felt feeble and weak, and so now it's becoming clear that God frustrated their plan. Their plan of attack is falling apart because they all returned to the wall, verse 15, each to his own work. And then the dispersion of the workers, the burdens and the builders and the weapons and the sword strapped by his side. The nobles and the officials and the rest of the people are addressed in verse 19.

In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet rallied to us there, our God will fight for us. Nehemiah remembers the book of Joshua because he's read it. He knows that there was horns that blew and massive cities that were defeated because of the favor of God.

Because God frustrated the plans of his enemies. And so, he is equipping the people to be ready to fight and set a guard and workday and night, a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. And when these enemies have heard that their plan is known that God has frustrated their counsel, the people return to their work. Because the ultimate explanation for the people's success is in God's frustrating the plan of His enemies. In other words, God ensuring the success of His people's work.

Human opposition is what this chapter gives us over and over and over again, but it's not human opposition that governs this chapter. This chapter is governed and driven and guided by the divine sovereignty that marks all the work of God and the lives of His people. The enemies plot, the people pray, Nehemiah prepares, God frustrates the counsel of the wicked. This doesn't make Nehemiah more careless; it makes Nehemiah more diligent.

From that day forward, half the men work and half of them hold their weapons. The burden bearers carry loads with one hand and a weapon with the other. The builders have their work equipment and a sword strapped to their belts that people are spread out in a smart way; they have an alarm system that they can trumpet and rally to wherever the breach is that the enemies might be trying to fill.

This is confidence of faith in God's sovereignty and diligence of work with His blessing. The promise of God's help should never make us passive. Too many passive Christians who have come to take on some form or version of the sovereignty of God of Reformed theology that honestly looks more like fatalism than it does like divine sovereignty. There's a place for rest. There's a place for watching God work.

But through it all, we're called to participation, to effort to diligence. And so, the people keep working, they keep watching, they labor from dawn until the night. All night they work in shifts. It says they don't take off their clothes. In other words, wherever they go, they have their sword with them.

They're always ready because this is what is the hallmark of all of God's people, the perseverance of faith. Faith works. It does. It trusts and it works. It trusts and prays and puts its hands to the plow. God's people don't quit because the work is hard. They don't relax because the enemy is coming after them. They don't let opposition distract them from obedience. They keep building until the work is finished.

Acts 14, 22, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Opposition is never an exception for us Christian. You will be the object of slander, gossip, malice, lies, mockery. Christians all over the world live under constant physical threat of violence against their worship.

How are they supposed to respond? I think sometimes we can be soft and say, why is this happening to me? Maybe God's not blessing it. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this. But what we should be doing is looking to our Lord and His apostles and remembering that opposition was never an exception.

Remember the apostle Paul was preaching in Acts 26, and he finally had an audience with Festus and he gives him the gospel and you know what Festus says? Paul, I think much learning has made you mad. You're a crazy person. Mockery of the gospel of God's grace. Or the ministry of Jesus. He heals Jairus' daughter in the mourners when He says she's merely sleeping because He's gonna resurrect her. They open mouth laugh at Jesus. What do they say about Jesus? He's demon possessed, John 10:20. Matthew 11:9, he's a glutton. He's a drunkard. And when He died on the cross for our sins, they mocked and reviled and opposed Him. How much opposition did the Lord Jesus Christ face? How much opposition did the apostles face?

Why did the apostle Paul tell us to put on the armor of God, to resist the devil and he'll flee? Nehemiah 4 teaches us what the entire Bible has been saying to us as followers of God, as those who are called to obedience, to serve Him and entrust the work of our hands to His success and blessing. We have to understand opposition does not necessarily mean that God is against the work. Opposition comes because God is in the work.

And from Genesis to Revelation, God's people face resistance. David was slandered; the prophets were rejected and killed. Jesus was mocked, falsely accused and crucified. The apostles were threatened and beaten. Paul was lied about, opposed, and imprisoned.

Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. We should not be surprised when we are opposed, when we are mocked, when we are threatened, when we're lied about. We shouldn't be distracted by those things or ruled by those things. We cannot let criticism make our work ever cease or take our hands off of the plow.

Look to God for vindication. Remember the Lord great and awesome. Pray and set a guard. Trust and fight. Watch and work and keep building because our God will fight for us. Amen.

(Prayer) Father, thank You for Your sovereignty that is the backbone of all of our efforts to serve our God and King. We will face tribulation and trial and lies and resistance. God, make us be people of prayer.

When we are dismayed, when we're troubled, when we're feeble, when our strength is failing, remind us that we're on your side that justice and vengeance belongs to You, that prayer is our avenue, and that preparation is our responsibility. Give us the kind of resolve that we saw in this chapter to continue to serve You with the strength that You provide, that we might just keep on building. Give You all the glory, know that success is because of Your blessing and opposition is because we're on Your side. Thank You for the gospel that changes us from enemies to friends and puts us on Your side and puts us to work and gives us that confidence to trust and to pray. Thank You for Jesus, His example of strength under opposition, of faithful diligence and perseverance to the end. May we trust You in like manner. In Jesus matchless name, amen. (End)

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