Protecting the Great Work | Sunday, July 17, 2022

Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors and the gatekeepers, the singers and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. And I said to them, "Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at the guard posts and some in front of their own homes." The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been built. Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy... (Nehemiah 7:1-5, 67-73)

The walls were finished, but the real work had only begun—now what God built had to be protected.

The Work Was Only Half Done

With chapter 6 finished, we are officially halfway through the book of Nehemiah. The building project is done: the walls are complete, the gates and doors installed. You might expect the book to close with "they all lived happily ever after." But this isn't a fairy tale. There needed to be protections in place to maintain the good work God had done through Nehemiah.

The same is true for us. The good work God has called us to do needs protection. We need to put up walls and gates and ways of guarding what God has done in me and you, and what He is doing in the world through the church.

The walls were completed in a miraculous 52 days, and that alone caused all the surrounding nations to fear, because they understood God had done it. But that building project was really just the beginning of what God had led Nehemiah to accomplish. When God begins a work in us, we likewise need barriers and walls and gates to protect what He has established—changing our character to match the calling He has given us.

Drawing Our Attention to the Gates

In verse 1, Nehemiah draws special attention—especially in the original Hebrew—not to the massive, impressive wall, but to the gates. The main verb is "I set up the gates." It's as if Nehemiah wants to focus our attention there, because the most vulnerable place on the wall is the gate.

If there was ever going to be an attack, the only place an enemy could really get in was through those gates—if they could break them down or sneak in while they stood open. So the question becomes critical: who do we appoint to guard the most vulnerable place?

Nehemiah appointed godly, trustworthy men. He gave charge to his brother Hanani and to Hananiah, "for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many." Recall the previous chapter: a religious leader within the walls had tried to lure Nehemiah into hiding in the temple under a false threat. Nehemiah refused—"How could I, a mere man, enter the temple and live?"—because he knew the Word of God. After being tricked by men within his own camp, it was natural that Nehemiah would trust only a few people with such an important task.

Faithful and God-Fearing Men

Who is his brother Hanani? Back in chapter 1, Hanani and a group of men from Jerusalem came to Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer, and told him of the devastation of Jerusalem. That report drove Nehemiah to intense prayer, then to the king for provisions, and finally to Jerusalem itself—leaving his place of comfort, prestige, and safety to do this incredibly hard task. It was Hanani who started all of this in motion.

We can assume Hanani loved the Lord and loved the Lord's people, so much that he traveled a long distance to enlist his brother in restoring Jerusalem. Hananiah, likewise, is listed as a man who is faithful and God-fearing, a man of integrity and trustworthiness. Nehemiah could not afford to put compromised leaders over the city and its gates.

This is point number one: to protect the great work God has given us, godly leadership is critical. Every Christian ministry is one generation away from destruction. When we allow compromised leaders to remain, or hire men and women of flawed character, or trust leaders who want to do God's work their own way, in one short generation a thriving church can go from doing a great work to being extinct.

I believe the church broadly will never fail—God will uphold her until Jesus returns. But local ministries are vulnerable. All it takes is one compromised generation.

God's Way, Not Our Way

Scripture is full of examples of God's way being different from ours. We make plans, but the Lord determines our steps. God told Jonah to preach to Nineveh, and Jonah did the exact opposite, fleeing—and ended up swallowed by a great fish.

Or consider David and Goliath. All Israel trembled before the Philistine giant, but God wasn't looking for a man in shiny armor. When David volunteered, they tried to load him with armor he couldn't even move in, and he set it aside: "I'll just go out with what I came with, my sling and a rock." God wasn't looking for someone bigger than Goliath. He was looking for the man who would look to Him and say, "Who is this Philistine compared to our God?"

Today we need leaders who first look to God in all circumstances rather than fearing situations that look impossible by human standards. Even Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist 57, wrote that the aim of every political constitution is "to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of society," and to keep them virtuous while they hold the public trust. That sounds like Nehemiah. You can't convince me the Bible didn't influence the founding documents of our country.

Character Determines Trustworthiness

Here is point number two: the character of a person in relationship to God will determine their trustworthiness in human affairs.

As a country, we no longer value virtue. We celebrate an entire month of pride—and pride is a sin. So I bring it to you directly: what do people know you by? Are you known as one who fears God more than most? Is your life marked by faithfulness to God above all else?

It is important to appoint leaders who have the discernment of Nehemiah, the prayer life of Daniel, the heart of David, the wisdom of Solomon, and the integrity of Joseph. But we must also strive for those characteristics in our own lives. We can shake our fists at the presidents and governors we have elected, but I would push back: a compromised people can only elect compromised representatives. We do not value virtue and godliness in our leadership because we ourselves are so utterly compromised.

We've thrown virtue out the window—men film a fight on their phones rather than intervene—and our leadership reflects that. We need to be on our knees like Nehemiah, Daniel, David, and Joseph, praying that God would re-instill in us a value for virtue and godliness. It has to start in your heart before it can go into the world. Could you have served as Hanani or Hananiah if called? Have you been building walls of godliness and faithfulness around your life and shut the gate to everything else?

Guarding the Gates of Your Life

In verse 3, Nehemiah gives three instructions. First, the gates should remain closed until the sun is hot—until late morning. Second, the doors should be shut and barred while the guards were on duty, perhaps opening only upon demand. The idea is that we don't open our gates in the dark, when we can't see who wants in or what their intentions are. Third, enlist locals to protect the doors near their own homes—just as Nehemiah had enlisted them to build their own portions of the wall. Nehemiah was great at delegating.

Let me offer a few suggestions for guarding the gates around your own life. First, be careful who and what you let in—people, doctrine, values, and beliefs. Under cover of darkness, it's hard to know what you're letting in until it's revealed by the light.

Second, enlist others to keep you accountable. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17). When we try to guard our own hearts alone, we inevitably let in things we shouldn't, because we all experience seasons of weakness and spiritual drought when the devil is quick to slip in false doctrine. In such a moment, we may let in something that destroys everything God began in us. Partner with others in prayer, and have at least one person you trust who can speak truth into your life, even when it hurts. God created us for life in connection with Him and one another.

Divine Guidance Over Every Task

In verse 5, Nehemiah's next task was to ensure the city was repopulated with the people who belonged there—with legal, genealogical evidence supporting it. This was also about reestablishing worship in the temple, restoring the historical priests, Levites, singers, and servants to their roles. It mattered that they genuinely belonged, because there had been many false prophets mixed in.

The same list appears in Ezra chapter 2. Remember, Ezra and Nehemiah worked together; in chapter 8 Ezra returns to read the book. This record sets the stage for the reestablishment of real worship and godliness, as the people return to the Scriptures and to their God—now in the relative safety of the new walls.

Notice that Nehemiah said, "My God put it into my heart" to do this. Just as God puts certain people and places on our hearts today. Countless missionaries since the birth of the church have been divinely led to reach new people with the gospel.

This is point number three: we need divine guidance over our physical and material tasks. What has God put into your heart today? Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law." Some translations read, "Where there is no divine guidance." Without that renewed vision from the Lord, we perish.

If you don't have a vision, you don't have a future—a man or woman without vision will always return to the past, to past sin and past behavior. But when God says go, as He told Nehemiah to go and rebuild Jerusalem and restore its worship, you go. A divinely inspired vision gives you a future.

Privileges and Responsibilities of the Kingdom

The last part of the chapter records the whole assembly—42,360 people, with servants, singers, horses, mules, camels, and donkeys—and then what each gave to the work. The governor gave, the priests gave, everyone gave to the work of the kingdom of God.

This is point number four: membership in the kingdom of God has its privileges and its responsibilities. For the people of Nehemiah's day, the privilege was protection, leadership, and the freedom to worship and return to the Scriptures. But it cost them something. Their responsibility was to fund the good work God was doing—to be invested both physically, by building the walls, and financially, by giving.

For us, the responsibility is to be "treasure transplanters." You take something of earthly good and turn it into something eternal. The kingdom of God and the people of God last forever; when you invest in that, you invest in the only thing that reaps eternal rewards. Our responsibility is obedience—to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to follow the divine vision God places in our hearts.

Are you feeling led to serve somewhere—to encourage someone, teach children's ministry, help set up in the mornings, or greet and usher? Behind me is the Mojave Desert, our VBS theme this week, and there are kids here right now learning about a God they never knew. Whatever the Lord is prompting you to do, don't hesitate and don't disregard it. Every single person in the body of Christ has a responsibility. You may feel like only a finger or a hand, but you are important—find where God has called you to serve.

The Privilege: Names in the Book

Nehemiah had a book in which were written the names of those who belonged in Jerusalem. Jesus also has a book—the Lamb's Book of Life—in which is written the name of every man, woman, and child who will inherit the kingdom of God and be welcomed into the new Jerusalem when God makes all things new, where there is no weeping, sorrow, sickness, or death. That is the great privilege.

But Revelation 20 also says, "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." From birth we were destined for hell because we were born into sin. Jesus came to reconcile us back to God, that we might be born again into His family as adopted sons and daughters, inheriting eternal life by believing in Christ, who bore our sins on the cross.

How can you be sure your name is written there? Titus 2 says, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people"—everybody, if your heart is beating. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ, "having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Those waiting are the ones who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead. We have all fallen short, but we are the people who, to the best of our ability, are growing in God and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our character to match our calling.

So my prayer is that you would ask: Am I a friend of God? Does Jesus know me? When I get to heaven, will He say, "Well done, good and faithful servant"—or will the gates be shut because you never believed, thinking you had done enough good or would consider it later? Today is the day of salvation. We have no guarantee of tomorrow.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I pray that we would surround ourselves with godly leaders, and even more, that in this generation we would see many godly leaders raised up—in Cross Connection Church and around the world. Our world is spiritually sick, Lord, and we need godly leaders to restore the walls in our civilization and in our lives, to restore the worship of our God and a return to the Scriptures.

Lord, some were challenged today and need Your divine guidance over their everyday tasks. Some feel they are in a spiritual drought with no real vision; Holy Spirit, fill them, give them a vision and a future. Some need the joy of their salvation restored—those whose walls were up but who never put the right accountability in place, and have let in ideas that halted the work You started. Father, restore the joy of their salvation.

Search our hearts; find in us anything that should not be consuming space, and replace it with Your Spirit of Truth, that we may finish the good work You started, keep the doors of our gates closed to anything not of You, and be used for Your glory. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done in our lives as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, and we all said, Amen.