In the sermon titled 'Remember the Lord, Great and Awesome,' Jason Dohm explores Nehemiah chapter 4, focusing on verses 7 through 14. The sermon describes the opposition faced by Nehemiah and the Jews as they rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, highlighting the conspiracy of various groups united by their hatred of the Jews. Dohm emphasizes the importance of focusing on God rather than the threats and discouragements from adversaries, drawing parallels to Psalm 38, where David chooses to ignore his enemies and place his hope in God. The sermon underscores the principle of responding to adversity with prayer and action, advocating for a faith that is demonstrated through works. Nehemiah's strategy of setting a watch and organizing families for defense reflects this principle. The sermon also touches on the significance of family as both a working and warring unit in God's service. Finally, Dohm encourages believers to remember the Lord's greatness and awesomeness, urging them to fight for their families and God's Kingdom, inspired by examples from both the Old and New Testaments.

Open in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 4. We'll be starting in 7 through 14. Now what happened when Sanballot, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed that they became very angry and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God and because of them we set a watch against them day and night. Then Judah said, the strength of our laborers is failing and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.

And our adversary said, They will neither know nor see anything till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease. So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came that they told us ten times, From whatever place you turn they will be upon us. Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings and I set the people according to their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people. Do not be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses." The title of the sermon this morning is, Remember the Lord, Great and Awesome. These are just inspiring words lifted right out of verse 14. So if there's any creativity in the sermon, It wasn't wasted on the title, that's for sure. It's really what the sermon is about. It's the heart of the text.

The Lord's people fixing their eyes upon their God. In the face of opposition, difficulty, and danger, they take their eyes off of that and they put their eyes upon the Lord. Great and awesome. In the last text, I titled the sermon, Deaf Mute Workers. I pulled that out of Psalm 38.

Psalm 38 was written by King David. In Psalm 38, King David describes the opposition, his enemies, and how he is hard pressed by these enemies. And then he says, I'm like a deaf man. I won't even listen to the voice of these enemies. I'm like a mute man.

I won't even respond to these enemies because my hope is in God." So that's where we've been. And that's exactly what David is expressing in Psalm 38, is exactly what is happening in Nehemiah chapter 4. There's lots of chatter from the enemy. There's lots of pressure from the enemy. But Nehemiah is saying, we're going to be like deaf people.

We're going to be as ones who can't even hear the voice of the Lord's enemies. We're going to be like mute people. We're going to be ones who won't even respond to all that. Our trust is going to be in God, and we're not going to be distracted or put off from the work for one minute. We're just going to fix our eyes on God.

In many ways, this week's text is just a continuation of that same theme. In the last text, we found this very, very helpful sequence. They mock you. Enemies of God do what they do. They come with mockery and disdain.

Rather than engaging in the back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth with the enemies of God, they mock you, and you pray to God. You don't even respond to them. Incoming bombs. You just pray to God. And then you get to work.

So this is the pattern for us. Incoming fire, we don't shoot back. We pray to God and then we get to work. That's really the mindset that the Lord wants His people to have. At the end of our last text, the people had a mind to work.

Literally the people had a heart to work. Their hearts were bent towards working for God, getting on with the work that God had given them to do. We went to Ephesians 2 to just establish again so firmly that salvation is not of works. They weren't working to earn favor with God. They were working because they already knew they had the favor of God and He has given them things to do.

So they have lives of gratitude and here we go to work for God who has redeemed us. That's the sense. They had a heart to work. Not to earn the favor of God, but because they have the favor of God. They want to do His work and please Him.

This week, the enemies of God go from mocking and contempt, that was last text, to joint conspiracy for an armed attack. So we're going from words to warfare. If the saying is, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, then we're going from the words that can never hurt us to the enemies are picking up the sticks and stones. That's what's happening in this week's text. We go from mocking and contempt to a joint conspiracy banding together for an armed attack.

No more words that can't hurt. Out come the sticks and the stones, so to speak. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, I thank You that You are the shield and the exceedingly great reward of Your people. That though we can build walls and we should build walls in some ways, God, that You are really the shield of Your people.

And that You are the one who sustains us. You're our exceedingly great reward. You're the great prize in life. Oh God, establish this so firmly among us. Use this text to press this truth on our hearts, that you are our shield, that you are the great prize of this life.

Pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. I'm going to be breaking up this week's text into three little sections. The first section is verses seven through nine. So let's read Nehemiah chapter four, verses seven through nine again, and then I'll comment on it. Verse 7, now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashtadites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed.

They became very angry. All of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. Nevertheless, we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night." Verses 7-9 is the conspiracy. So if you've got your hand out and you're taking notes and you're filling in blanks, it's a conspiracy. The enemies of God, therefore the enemies of God's people, they're one and the same, always one and the same.

The enemies of God's people are the enemies of God. The enemies of God are the enemies of God's people. It can't be any other way. And they band together. So we see a sort of union.

And It begins with the hearing of a report. I said that in our last text. Tobiah and Sanballat, etc. Keep popping up. But every time they pop up, they pop up for the same reason.

They've heard something is going on. It's in response to a report. So this is like the pattern. Here it is again. They hear a report.

They hear something going on in Jerusalem and here they are to oppose it. They have become quite disturbed about what they are hearing. There are five parties in verse 7. Sanballat, Tobiah, we already know them well, and it is only chapter 4. The Arabs, in chapter 2 verse 19 we were introduced to Gashem the Arab so we've already really seen the Arabs in the form of Gashem the Arab.

The Ammonites we know from earlier chapters that Tobiah is an Ammonite, so we've sort of been introduced to the Ammonites in Nehemiah. And the Ashdodites. So Of the five, one of the parties is new. It's the Ashdodites. Ashdod, if you've read through the Old Testament a couple of times, the name sounds familiar.

There's a reason for that. It's because Ashdod is one of five great Philistine cities. Of course, the Philistines being the oldest, most bitter enemy of the Lord's people. The most famous of the Lord's enemies, Goliath, was a Philistine. Was he from Ashdod?

We don't know. I don't know. Maybe we do know and I just don't know. Ashdod is one of the five great Philistine cities. Philistia, or where the Philistines lived, is on the coast of the Mediterranean.

Ashdod is directly west from Jerusalem, right on the Mediterranean Sea. It's probably a beautiful city. Of these five cities, there's another that you'd recognize right away, Gaza. Does Gaza sound familiar? It's in the news every day.

That is directly west of Jerusalem. It used to be in Philistia, where the Philistines lived. So that is the new party, those from Ashdod. There are prophecies about Ashdod, it's probably better to say there are prophecies against Ashdod in Isaiah, in Jeremiah, in Zephaniah, in Zechariah. So Ashdod as a place, as a city, is on the biblical map, is on God's map of people who His wrath is against.

They're named with judgment attached to it in four of the prophetic books. And In Isaiah 20 verse 1, Ashdod is said to be being overrun by a king of Assyria. The king's name is Tartan. In Isaiah 20 verse 1, Philistia, where the Philistines are, is being overrun by an empire, the Assyrian Empire. Then, of course, Assyria was conquered by Babylon.

Babylon was conquered by the Persians. Now it's about 150 years after Isaiah 20 was written. The Philistines have been swallowed up by three successive empires, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. By this time, the whole region is known by the name of this city. When we read about the Ashdodites, It could be people from the city of Ashdod, but it's more likely just referring to the whole region that used to be Philistia, where the Philistines were, but now, during this time, three empires later, the whole region is known by the name of this city.

So here is the picture. Samaria to the north, they hate everything that is going on in Jerusalem. Ammon the Ammonites to the east, they hate everything that's going on in Jerusalem. Arabia to the south, they hate everything that's going on in Jerusalem. The Ashtadites to the west, they know they hate everything that is going on in Jerusalem.

So now we're out of arrows on the compass. A compass points the direction that you're going. So you've got an arrow for north, an arrow for south, an arrow for west, an arrow for east. We're out of arrows. Anywhere the arrow can point, you have people who hate what's going on in Jerusalem, who are the enemies of God and the enemies of God's people.

And they're not happy about the wall being rebuilt, about the wall being restored. The text says that they're mad. The text says exactly that they're very angry. So they conspire together to attack Jerusalem. So North agrees with South, agrees with West, agrees with East, that what's happening in Jerusalem is unacceptable.

Something has to be done about it militarily. The Hebrew word behind conspiring together is to bind. They are binding themselves together in a pact to do something about the progress that is being made in Jerusalem. They are watching their ability to control Judah through intimidation because the walls are broken down, the Lord's people are totally exposed, they have no protection against military action. So they've just been able to direct them, encourage them in the way they wanted them to go, just through intimidation.

When the wall starts coming up, that's evaporating. They're watching it evaporate. They're very angry. So they band together for this action. Do not think that these people share a mutual affection.

Don't! Don't! Don't! A thousand times don't! The Sumerians don't love the Ammonites, don't love the Arabians, don't love the Ashtadites.

They might have some common interests. But it's not based on mutual affection. It's based on a common hatred. All that the unity is based on here is a common hatred. This is just like in Jesus' day.

If you just read the four gospels, you'd think the Pharisees and Sadducees just love each other. They just can't get enough of being around each other. They're just friends. You look in the rest of the New Testament, you do a little historical study, and you find out they hate each other's guts. They don't agree on anything except for something that has to be done about Jesus.

So they have a common unity. Yeah, It's hatred of God and his ways and his people. Strange bedfellows. That's our modern day phrase. Politics makes strange bedfellows, meaning it creates all sorts of strange marriages.

People who can't agree on hardly anything. And yet, there will be some unifying discontent or hatred that brings people who aren't normally brought together, it brings them together and unifies them. So the commonality here is hatred for God and His righteousness and a people who used to not stand up for that righteousness, but now Nehemiah has come with the express purpose of putting an end to that. The people have been living in reproach. Remember Nehemiah chapter 1, that was the report.

The Lord's people are living in reproach. The walls are broken down. The gates are burned. And Nehemiah says, something has to be done. God, raise up your people to end The reproach that is really your reproach.

Here's the application for us. Don't be surprised when people who really don't have things in common unify against us. Against the Lord's people. That should never surprise us. If we're any kind of students of our Bibles, that should never surprise us.

It happens all over in the Bible. Don't be surprised when people who aren't unified about anything else can come to an agreement and can be very unified about not liking us. That's not a surprising thing at all. The other part of that is don't overestimate their unity. The shallowness of that unity can be exploited.

We see this in Acts chapter 23. In Acts chapter 23, Paul has been dragged before the Sanhedrin. What should we do with Paul? He's turning the world upside down. And Paul exploits this shallow unity, this fake fraudulent unity, by saying, I'm on trial today because of my belief in the resurrection from the dead.

The Pharisees say, we don't find anything wrong with this man. There's this great uproar. What's Paul doing? He's recognizing that this is not real unity. This is not based on mutual affections or service to God or anything good.

They just hate me. So he just pokes a hole in that shallow unity. So as Paul thinks it's fair to recognize the shallowness of that unity and to poke a hole in it, to exploit it. That's the application for us. Don't be surprised when strange bedfellows are created by us being obedient in this area or that area.

But also don't overestimate the unity that is enjoyed there. The shallowness of it can be exploited. What do the Lord's people do? They pray and then they act. Look at verse 9.

Immediately they are praying again. Together, not just Nehemiah, we made our prayer to our God, corporately prevailing upon God for help, and then they act. They post a night and day guard to be on the lookout for an attack. Verse 9 begins with this beautiful word, nevertheless. In spite of all the opposition, in spite of the imminent danger, the danger that's right there next door to them, to the north, the south, the east, and the west.

Nevertheless, The Lord's people are not paralyzed by the imminent danger on every side. They are moved to pray. They are moved to act. To me, this is inspiring. Honestly, at least in the short term, it's really not that hard to paralyze me.

There's imminent danger I'm sort of feeling like frozen up. But not here. They're moved forward. They're not frozen in place. They're actually moved to pray.

They're actually moved to post-guards night and day to be on the lookout. What is this? This is faith with works. Faith with works. In James chapter 2 verse 18, we read this, Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Then continuing in verse 19, faith without works is dead. So James says, I'm going to demonstrate that I do believe in God by my works. I'm going to demonstrate my belief by moving forward, by getting going. This shows you that I really believe that God is there. I don't have to be paralyzed.

I'm moved forward. Action is not the enemy of prayer. This is one of the big takeaways from the text, friends. Action is not the enemy of prayer. In other words, there is a school of thought that says, if I pray and then I take action, it's sort of showing that I don't believe that my prayers will do it.

That's a school of thought. There's another school of thought that says it actually demonstrates that I believe what I prayed if when I'm done praying I get in motion. James belongs to the second school of thought. He believes that when he gets done praying, he should act like he believes God heard him and will answer his prayers and so he gets moving. So James is arguing that real faith isn't a passive mystical faith.

Are you with me? Real faith. James is all about arguing that there are two kinds of faith, the real kind and the fake kind. James says the real faith isn't a passive, mystical faith that prays and then sits in a yoga position for God to do something magical. James says that's fake.

James says real faith is praying for God to give you your daily bread and then going to work. That's what James believes. James doesn't see any contradiction in doing that. James thinks that the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 that teaches us to pray for our daily bread. And then what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 that if there is somebody who won't work you shouldn't even eat with them, You should just move back from them until they bring their life in order.

James doesn't think those things contradict themselves at all. They go right hand in hand. We should pray for our daily bread. And then off to work with us, not because we don't believe that God will answer our prayer for our daily bread, but because we do believe that He'll make our efforts fruitful. So off to work we go, because we've prayed and we think, God has heard my prayers, He's going to bring fruitfulness from my labors.

And he'll use that to fulfill the things that I was asking for. It's very important for how we view things. Our prayers more often than not should move us forward into action because we believe that God has heard them and we can act like God has heard them because we really believe it. Now verses 10-12. EMI chapter 4 verse 10.

Then Judah said, The strength of the laborers is failing. There is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall. Our adversary said, They will neither know nor see anything till we come into their midst, and kill them and cause the work to cease. So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came that they told us ten times from whatever place you turn they will be upon us. Verses ten through twelve are the reports from all sides.

So if you're taking notes on the handout, it's all sides. Reports from all sides. There are three verses and there are three reports from three different directions. Everyone has something discouraging to add in verses 10, 11, and 12. Before we get to the three reports, I want to begin this section with an observation.

Every hard project ever has low hanging fruit. What I mean by low hanging fruit is parts of the project that can be done immediately and most easily. Low hanging fruit means it's hanging low on the tree and to pick it all you've got to do is just sort of reach up. It's right there. It's right there for the picking.

And then to finish the harvest you have to go up into the higher branches and it's not just standing there on the ground reaching for the things that are shoulder height anyway, That's the whole idea behind it. So every meaningful project has low-hanging fruit, things that can be done immediately, things that can be done easily, and then. And then you're out of low-hanging fruit. So we know that this is a 52-day project, miraculously. The rebuilding and repair of a probably more than two-mile long wall, making it militarily defensible, eight feet thick in some places.

This gets done in 52 days. We don't know exactly where we are in the 52 days, we just know that they've picked the low-hanging fruit. And now they're met with the more difficult parts, the things that can't be done immediately, the things that can't be done easily, the things that will have to be done through blood, sweat, and tears, and then what? More blood, sweat, and tears. Any time you hit this point in the project, if you have a wise, strong leader who is not surprised that you ran out of low hanging fruit, and who's not paralyzed because you ran out of low hanging fruit, then you continue the progress, you continue the project and you finish.

You meet with success. You've got to have a strong, wise leader who's been there before and is willing to push through being done with the easy and immediate, and who's willing to put their shoulder to the work and bear down for the difficult parts of the task. If you don't have a strong wise leader, then the project dies without success or completion. Many projects, many projects end right after the low-hanging fruit is gone. Because there's no one there who will say, no, no, no, this is nothing new.

The train's not off the tracks. Anytime you're going to accomplish anything meaningful, we hit this spot. So here we are. Put your shoulder down and forward. And because there's no one there to do that, the project dies.

Okay, the three reports. Number one in verse ten, the first report. The report about the laborers. It's laborers in this translation, but a very literal translation of the Hebrew word would be bearers of burdens. In other words, You have a couple of kinds of people working on construction projects.

You have the skilled laborers, the mason workers in this case, who are working with their hands on the wall. Then you just have people who need to get the stones out of the way. The rubbish heaps have got to get gone, so you have room to work, and then you're bringing in materials that weigh a lot. You need the strong backs, the brute force. These are really the burden bearers, literally.

Verse 10 says, this is something that Judah said. So this is not just a couple of complainers. We only just have a few wayward whiners on the project here. Judah said this, it's very widespread, it's on the lips of about everybody. Listen to what the Expositors Bible Commentary says.

The expositors Bible commentary says, The complaint couched in poetic form in two lines of five words each, may reflect a song sung by the builders. So this isn't a paraphrase of some things some people have been saying. This has been codified. This has been made into something that is passed along in poetic form. Two lines of five words each.

It's either a saying or a song. It might be a song that they're singing as they're working about the hardships of the work. It's one or the other. It's a saying or a song that is just repeated and repeated. This doesn't come through in the English at all.

You never get that from reading, particularly the New King James version. In order to capture this, the NASB and the ESB and the NIV put it in quotes so that you see. This is a quotation. This is some sort of a saying or a song or something like that. The other translations try to capture that.

The verse says that their strength is failing. The strength of the burden bearers is failing. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word for failing is to stumble, to stagger, to totter under the weight of something. So this is the picture. You've got these burden-bearers.

They're supposed to get the heaps of rubble out of the way. They're supposed to bring in these massive materials for rebuilding an eight-foot-thick wall that goes more than two miles around. They're tottering under the weight of the work. They're about to just fall under the weight of the work. That's what's being communicated here.

The wall was originally ruined in 586 BC. This is Nebuchadnezzar coming. It's been almost 150 years since Nebuchadnezzar came and originally wrecked the walls of Jerusalem and burned down the gates. Now it's about 445 BC. So those are the time markers.

586 BC is Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians overrunning Jerusalem. Now we're in something like 445 BC. But the rubbish heaps don't disappear. Rubbish heaps full of large stones, they don't go anywhere, Even in 150 years unless someone takes them somewhere. There's not been the impetus for that.

So you still have these heaps of stones around. 150 years later there are stone piles around and now it's inhibiting the work. They can't even get to the wall in places to do the work. We've already seen this in Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 14. Nehemiah at night is surveying the wall from outside the wall.

In chapter 2 verse 14 it says there was no room for his animal to pass. This is probably exactly what was happening then. His animal comes and there's this pile of stones and rubble, probably from a long, long time ago, and he can't even get past it. He has to turn back and reenter the city where he had exited it. We've already seen this, these great piles of rubble that have been there for a long time.

But now it's keeping the workers from getting to the wall. And they're feeling like they can't continue. So that's the first report from Judah. It's on the lips of everyone. We're just tottering under the weight of the work.

Number two, verse 11. This is the second report about what their adversaries are saying. What are the enemies saying? The enemies are essentially saying they won't even know what hit them until it's too late. We'll be in their midst killing them before They even understand what's going on and will make the work to cease.

We'll execute a surprise attack and that will be the end of this wall. Some commentators look at this and say, this is a whisper campaign. Meaning, it's psychological warfare. They're leaking this information to the Jews, so that the Jews will be terrified. And Maybe we won't even have to attack if they're afraid enough that we'll just paralyze them with fear and the work will stop on its own.

It's possible that it is psychological warfare, that it is a whisper campaign. But if so, it's not an idle threat. The text has already said that they are conspiring together to attack Jerusalem. This may be laying the groundwork for the attack and introducing fear, so the attack will be that much more successful. But it's no idle threat.

Other commentators say, no, it's not a whisper campaign, it's intelligence reports. It's real intelligence about what the enemies are saying. They have a way to know what the enemies are saying. In any event, the effect is the same. Now turn to Ezra chapter 4.

Ezra chapter 4. Just flip back a few pages. You remember Ezra chapter 4, Ezra steps back and shows them a century of opposition. So this is the very end of that chapter and the very end of that century. And it brings us pretty close to where we are today.

It's the same king, Artaxerxes. At the end of Ezra chapter 4, the king in view is Artaxerxes. It's the king of today in Nehemiah chapter 4. This has to be earlier in his reign. Enemies of the Lord's people have written to Artaxerxes to say this rebellious city is starting to be rebuilt, you better do something about it.

Artxerxes does the research. He does find that Jerusalem has rebelled before in its history. And so he orders the work on the wall to cease. So this isn't the same situation. This is sometime in the twenty years preceding this, because Nehemiah chapter 4 is in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes reign.

So it has to be somewhere in the first twenty years of Artaxerxes reign. So look at Ezra chapter 4, actually let's look at verse 21 first. This is the end of Artaxerxes letter to the people in the region. Now give the command to make these men cease that this city may not be built until the command is given by me." So the people were making attempts during this time, early in Artaxerxes reign, to rebuild the wall. It's opposed.

Artaxerxes writes a letter that says, make them cease. Now we come to verse 23. Now when the copy of King Artxerxes' letter was read before Rahum, Shemshah the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem against the Jews, and by force of arms made them cease." By force of arms, made them stop rebuilding, stop repairing the walls. So this is not ancient history. If you're 20 years old or less, this would have happened sometime in your lifetime if you are in Nehemiah chapter 4.

It hasn't been that long ago. So there are some interesting questions that you can't answer. The best you can do is speculate. But questions like, did any of the personalities in Nehemiah chapter 4, were they around when this happened? When Ezra chapter 4, those events that are recorded there happen?

Did they have anything to do with it? Were they aware of it? You know they're at least aware of Ezra chapter 4 in Nehemiah chapter 4. It's impossible to think they didn't know that earlier in the King's reign he had authorized the leaders of the region to go and make that work stop by force of arms. So that is in the backdrop there.

At least they had knowledge. Verse 11, we're back in Nehemiah chapter 4 now. In verse 11, the objective is explicit, it's just outright said, to cause the work to cease. This isn't to annihilate the Lord's people. This is to keep the Lord's people under their thumb by keeping Jerusalem exposed by having a wall that's broken down.

So they want to create confusion. We've already seen that in our text. They want to cause the work to cease. But they're willing to come in among them and kill some of them to get the work to stop. One final point in this section.

In chapter two verse nineteen, Sanballat and Tobiah and Gesham say this, what is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king? So two chapters ago they were accusing the Lord's people of rebelling against King Artaxerxes. What are they doing in chapter 4? They're rebelling against King Artxerxes.

They're doing the exact thing that they were accusing the Jews of doing two chapters earlier. They know it. It's been clear. They're aware of the letters from King Artxerxes authorizing the Jews to repair and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. They know about it.

That's already been said in chapter 2. I think it was verse 10. What does that mean? It just means there's no intellectual honesty here. You shouldn't attribute intellectual honesty to the enemies of God.

They will say anything to manipulate you. They'll say anything. They'll accuse you of things that they themselves are doing. If you treat them like honest people, you'll just be thinking all wrong about it. You'll be thinking, well, they've accused me of this.

If I respond in this way, they'll stop. No, no, no. That's not how it works. They're trying to manipulate you. That's the point.

The third report in verse 12 is the report from the Jews who live outside of Jerusalem. So there are many who are in Jerusalem, they are working on the wall together, but not all of Judah is inside Jerusalem. Many are still living in the surrounding towns. Now the reports are coming flooding in from them. Jews who live near the adversaries, Jews who live in the border towns.

Judah is a defined region. They have people living on the border of that region. Right across the line there are Sumerians, or there are Ammonites, or there are Arabs, or there are Ashtadites. We're watching them mobilize to attack. We can see one neighborhood over, one town over, we're watching troop movements.

Somebody better send a Nehemiah. It's happening from everywhere. Ten times over it just means again and again and again the reports are coming in to Nehemiah. They're mobilizing here, They're mobilizing here, they're mobilizing here, they're mobilizing here. It's the Sumerians, it's the Arabs, it's the Ammonites, it's the Ashtadites, and the reports just keep coming.

Here's what Matthew Henry has to say. I thought it was very insightful. Matthew Henry says, Active leading men have many times as much ado to grapple with the fears of their friends as with the terrors of their enemies. Here's Nehemiah, and he's spending his time grappling with the fears of his friends. Now it's good he's getting these reports.

They should be sending him the reports. But You get the sense from verse 10, verse 11, verse 12 that the fear is just building among the Lord's people, don't you? It's like, oh, it's getting ready to get ugly. I don't know what we should do. The fear is building and he's spending his time and his energy grappling with the fears of his friends as much as with the terrors of his enemies.

It made me wonder, how much time do we spend, How much of our energy do we spend just on our own insecurities? We're just frozen up by our own fears and the fears of our friends. Thankfully, not Nehemiah, But it easily happens. You feel the waves. Verse 10 is a wave.

Verse 11 is a wave that washes right over the top. Verse 12 is a wave that washes over the top. And you can just feel when you read it, the pressure is mounting. Jerusalem has become a pressure cooker because the discouraging reports are coming from every angle. They are coming fast and furious.

That brings us to verses 13 and 14. Let's read them and then consider them. Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 13, Therefore I, Nehemiah, positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings. And I set the people according to their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people.

Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses." This section is about Nehemiah's response, if you're note taking. Response is the blank. Again, we see action. Nehemiah is springing into action again.

Not prayerlessly, but here he goes. He's believed his prayers and now forward. What do we know about Nehemiah? We know this. He would much rather fight than abandon God's work.

Door number one, fight those coming from the north, The south, the east, the west. Door number two, abandon the work God has given you to do. Nehemiah opens door number one. Give me door number one all day long. I'll fight 10, 000 of these battles before I will abandon my post that God has given me, and abandon the work that He's given me to do.

What a spirit in this man. I love this man. I can't wait to meet Nehemiah. Are we going to get to meet Nehemiah? I hope so.

First, Nehemiah prepares to defend especially the most exposed sections. The low parts are where the openings are. That's where he stations men. We just keep seeing the same old things about Nehemiah. He's wise, he's thoughtful, he plans, he executes.

This is Nehemiah. Okay, where the troops need to be? The low parts, where the openings are. That's where we station our men. Secondly, Nehemiah deploys families.

Do you see this? He deploys families. I set the people according to their families. This is right along with the Old Testament pattern. You can find this in any number of places in the Old Testament.

When the Lord's people are mobilizing for war, it's by clan, it's by tribe, it's by family. Have you ever played competitive sports against brothers or sisters? Have you ever tried to play Pictionary against two sisters? It's like murder. Have you ever tried to play Pictionary against two sisters?

It's like murder. Have you ever tried to play Ultimate Frisbee against Nick and Juan? It's just horrendous. Because they know where the other one is going to be. It's like they share a brain.

They've lived together so long that there are so many advantages to having them working together. Competitive sports is horrific against siblings. So the Lord's people just seem to always be tapping into that in the Old Testament. So we're seeing here in Nehemiah that families are not just working units. Do you remember chapter 3?

It hasn't been that long ago. Chapter 3, families are working units. There are 42 sections of wall and there are working units. Who is working on the walls? It's families.

This family is working on this section and this family is working on this section and This family is working on this section, and this family is working on this section, and this family is working on this section. Over here, not surprisingly, the place right outside their front door, they're working units in chapter 3. In chapter 4, they're fighting units. They're not just working units, they're fighting units too. It may be that there are family idolatrous churches out there that over-exalt the family, but you can't say the Bible doesn't say a lot about family.

We don't want to be idolizing family, over-exalting family, but at the same time, there's no denying when you search the Scriptures that God makes the family an important means to the most important ends. If you make the family an end in itself, then it's become an idol and you've gone too far. But if you deny that God has made it an important means to the most important ends, You've lost your mind. You're not a student of your Bible. Families are working units.

Families are warring units, fighting units. And our family should be working units. And our family should be warring units, fighting units, units ready to fight for the Kingdom of God to expand the borders of Jesus' Kingdom. What about you? Do you see your family in this light?

Have you thought of your family as a warring unit, as a fighting unit? Are you ready for that? Are you engaged? What's the battle line? Which front?

If you see yourself as a fighting unit, then prove it. What front are you fighting on then? I think our abortion clinic ministry is really helping us with this. The Dohm family has been out there some Saturdays and some interesting things have been. We have seen interesting things.

We have heard interesting things. It doesn't feel like home out there. It sort of feels like a battlefront. This is good. It's getting us ready for more.

It's helping us to think of ourselves as a fighting unit. But we need more of it. Fathers and mothers, think this way. You're a working unit. What are you working on?

You're a fighting unit. Where are you fighting? God would have us think this way. So in addition to the action, he's placing troops. We see this inspiring exhortation to the leaders, to the nobles, to the rest of the people.

Everybody, great to small, gets the inspiring exhortation. Nehemiah knows that he must deploy men with a fighting spirit. It's not enough just to put warm bodies where there's a gap in the wall. It is never enough to just put people with two eyebrows where there's a need. You need people with a fighting spirit.

Nehemiah knows that. He looks out and sees that the waves of discouragement have been coming. Somebody better counteract that and he is the man. He is ready to counteract that. Sanballat and Tobiah were looking at the obstacles.

They were looking at the piles of rubble. All this limestone has been made unusable by the intense heat of a burning city 150 years ago. They're laughing and comforting themselves about how inept the Jews are. They're looking at that. Nehemiah makes it so the Lord's people look at the Lord.

The enemies can look at all the discouraging factors and comfort themselves that the Lord's people aren't going to make project. The Lord's people don't have time to look at that. Their eyes have to be fixed on the Lord, great and awesome. The minute we make time to look at the piles of rubble, we're dead. The project is paralyzed.

You don't have time to look at those discouragements. You look at God, who is great and awesome. You'll have all that you need to sustain you for the work. It feels like you're tottering under the weight. You look at God.

He says two things. He says to remember two things here in this last verse, verse 14. It's spectacular. First, remember who you are fighting under. We have a commanding officer.

Who are you fighting under? Remember the Lord, great and awesome. In Romans 9, he is called the Lord of Sabaioth. The Lord of hosts, meaning he has hosts, armies behind him. He is at the head of armies.

You don't need to worry about Sumerians. You don't need to worry about Ammonites. You don't need to worry about Arabians. You don't need to worry about Arabians. You don't need to worry about Ashtonites.

God is at the head of His armies. They're not puny little human armies. They're full of these beings who, if you saw one of them, you would prostrate yourself before it. He is the Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of sabbath, His name.

A mighty fortress is our God. In 2 Kings, Elisha and his servant have been bottled up. They are surrounded by a Syrian army. The Syrians can't get done what they need to get done because God keeps giving intelligence to Elisha. He keeps telling Elisha exactly what's going to happen.

So the king of Assyria knows if he's going to succeed, he's got to deal with Elisha, the source of trouble. So he's got him surrounded and the servant's biting his fingernails off. So Elisha prays, God please open his eyes so he can see. And the servant's eyes are opened up and he can see that They're surrounded by horses and flaming chariots. And Elisha says, there's more who are for us than who are against us.

Friends, brothers and sisters, that's always true. Okay, That's always true. It's not isolated to 2 Kings chapter 6. That's always true. There are more who are for us than those who are against us.

The Lord's people are never outgunned. Never, ever outgunned. God always has enough might. He is the Lord of sabbath. He is the Lord of hosts.

His armies are behind Him. Sometimes he lets things happen to the Lord's people for his own wisdom and purposes, but it never means he was outgunned. Never, ever. Listen to David in Psalm 20 verse 7. Now think of who this is.

This is David, the slayer of Goliath. Psalm 20 verse 7. Some trust in chariots and some in horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. This is exactly what Nehemiah is saying.

You let them trust in chariots. You let them trust in horses. We'll trust in God and let it play out." This is David. David was a man of horses and chariots. He was the king in his own right at the head of his own armies.

But David didn't trust his armies. David prayed for his daily bread and then headed off to work. David prayed for protection and then took the head of his armies and led them to the field of battle. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. So remember who you are fighting under.

You are fighting under the Lord of hosts, the Lord of sabbath. And remember who you are fighting for. You're fighting under the Lord. Great and awesome. Awesome actually means terrible.

Like what should inspire fear. You're fighting for your brethren, your brothers and sisters in the faith. You're fighting for your sons. You're fighting for your daughters. You're fighting for your wives.

You're fighting for your houses. Everything is on the line. Many times we would be helped just to wake up and see how high the stakes are. To think about what you're fighting for. Wake up and throw off your slumber.

You're fighting for your wife. You're fighting for your sons and daughters. It's all on the line. Literally, They're fighting for their sons and daughters, their wives, their houses. Literally, you are too.

The world wants to gobble you up, but not just you, fathers especially, and mothers. The world wants to gobble up your sons and daughters. You're literally fighting for your sons and daughters. Everything is on the line. Wake up from your slumber.

Seek the face of the Lord. Remember the Lord, great and awesome. He is terrible. He is worthy of the fear of all your enemies. Now serve Him with a whole heart.

Think of how the language of war permeates the New Testament. That was the Old Testament. End of war. No, no, no. This is for the people of God in all ages.

It is only war on this side of heaven for the people of God. The enemy is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, period. Until the end of the age, This is our reality. We are the church militant until the wedding supper of the Lamb. We're a military church.

We're in the middle of warfare whether we like it or not. If you like it, you're in the middle of warfare. If you don't like it, you're in the middle of warfare anyway. Too bad. Get used to it.

This is the teaching of Scripture. Okay, two applications. Turn to Matthew 10-28. Application number one is memorize Matthew 10 28 this week. This is your homework.

You're giving homework. Matthew 10 28, you memorize it this week. We quote this so often you practically haven't memorized already, but Get it word perfect this week. This is Jesus. It's like he's teaching Nehemiah.

Matthew 10, 28, Jesus says, And do not Fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. This is exactly what Nehemiah is saying. Samarians can only kill the body, friends. Ammonites can only kill the body.

Arabs can only kill the body. Ashtadites can only kill the body. Don't fear them. God controls eternity. Fear God.

Take your eyes off those human enemies. Put your eyes, fix them on the Lord. Great and awesome. Great and terrible. And the fear of those human enemies is just going to melt away.

Get your eyes off the piles of rubble. Put them on God. The discouragements of all the circumstances are going to melt away. Memorize Matthew 10-28 this week, please, for your own happiness. This is not to make us cower from God.

This is to make us stop fearing circumstances and people. When our eyes are on God and our fear of Him is rightly on Him, then All the things that seem so cloudy clear up really fast. It's beautiful. Number two, lastly, turn to Acts. Acts chapter 20.

Here's the application from Acts chapter 20. Adopt the view of Paul. Paul is going to give us his view of danger and difficulty and what happens when you're all out of low-hanging fruit. You get Paul's view in Acts chapter 20. Verses 22 through 24.

Acts chapter 20 beginning in verse 22, Paul writes, And see, Now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me. Nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Paul is going from city to city. The Holy Spirit is just driving him towards Jerusalem.

He doesn't know exactly why. He just knows that the Spirit is testifying that chains and tribulations await him there. But he knows the Spirit is driving him there anyway. And he says, none of these things move me, neither do I count my life as dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy and finish the work that Jesus gave me to do, to share the Gospel." This is the heart of Nehemiah coming right on through into the Apostle Paul. It should be our heart.

Think of the freedom and joy that comes with feeling this way, knowing that God has given us things to do, and knowing that in spite of the dangers, in spite of the discouragements, and despite of all the opposition, that none of these things move us. No, I will not be moved. God has told me what I am to do, that I am to press forward with the Gospel no matter what. If it costs me my life, As Esther says in the book of Esther, she tells people to fast and pray for her. Then she says, I'm going into the King's presence.

If I die, I die. There are things in this life worth dying for. God would have us have this vision of life that our eyes would be upon Him, so that none of these things would move us. We would be just like Paul. None of these things would move us.

Our eyes are on Him. If He wants us going there, we're going there. But what about the dangers? But what about the discouragements? But what about the opposition?

None of these things move me. My eyes are on the Lord. Great and awesome. Let's pray. Father, what an inspiring text.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing us here so that our spirits would be revived. God, here you've placed us in a world of dangers, of discouragements, of enemies and opposition. But I thank you that our eyes can be fixed upon you so that none of these things can move us, that we would long to finish our race with joy, having done the work that you gave us to do, to press forward this glorious gospel, to offer the free offer of pardon and grace to all who are thirsty. Oh make us bold. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.