walls of worship, walls of Bible reading, walls of prayer, walls of righteousness to shut out evil of all kinds—that is God’s work. First, we must face the need. Prayer Prepares for Building the Walls When Nehemiah heard of the sad state of God’s work in Jerusalem, he sat down and began to cry. He mourned for several days, fasted and prayed. Something is terribly wrong in the lives of those who call themselves Christians who never shed a tear over the church and over those without Christ. We sing of Christ’s church, For her my tears shall fall, For her my prayers ascend; To her my cares and toils be given, Till toils and cares shall end. Why do church people shed tears over movies, over television drama, over a story, but their eyes are dry as they see crowds of people pushing each other over the cliff of death without hope, with out Christ? They never become enough concerned to miss a meal to pray; they could not imagine fasting and praying for days over God’s work. “ Why could not we cast him out?” asked the disciples, referring to the de monized boy at the foot of the mount of Transfiguration. “This kind cometh not forth but by prayer and fasting,” said the Lord Jesus. God’s power is not bought in the five and ten cent store. We get what we pay for. A cheap, tawdry, costless following of the Lord Jesus pays few dividends. Two necessary things Nehemiah did in his prayer. He confessed his sins and those of his people: “ Both I and my father’s house have sinned” (Nehemiah 1:6). God’s power and blessing do not come down on a stinking carcass of proud organization, smug selfishness, outward gestures of hands and lips, and cold, dead hearts. We major in comfort for ourselves. We have distorted the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “ Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” We may say it; then we live as if “man’s chief end is to glorify himself and enjoy himself for ever.” Sin insulates us from the power of God. Instead of being wires of communi cation, we are wrappings of insulation. We sing our songs, we pray our prayers, we listen to our golden-voiced organs' and choirs, we go away and feel good because we have been to church. Little happens. We come up against life and cave in before its penetrating filth, its cruel pressure, its mean crushing of personality. We lose the little power we thought we had. We find we are not even a neu tral force. We have become part of the world’s problem, though we profess to be channels of God’s power. Let us confess our sins as Nehemiah did. Let us not pretend to be better than we really are in God’s sight. Let us whip Page Fourteen
off the masks of hypocrisy and stand bare before God. Only then can God do something with us and through us. The second thing Nehemiah did in his prayer was to claim God’s promises. The Israelites were God’s redeemed people. If they confessed their sins and turned from their wickedness God must keep His word and plant them on their land again. Prayer made Nehemiah a new man. It stripped him of all fear, even of the king who could kill him by moving a finger. Perhaps the greatest hindrance in doing God’s work is the fear of man. Nehemiah does not end his prayer by speaking of “his Majesty the King.” This is what he prayed: “. . . prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man” (Nehemiah 1:11). The king is only a man as Nehemiah is and God can help him to talk to the king, man to man. At "I drank only water; the other workmen were great drinkers of beer. They wondered to see that I was stronger than they." —Benjamin Franklin ★ ★ ★ every turn Christians are stopped in their tracks by asking themselves “What will so-and-so say?” instead of, “ What does God want me to do?” Nehemiah built the walls because he was a man of prayer. Some people think that prayer is one thing and action another. That’s a lie. Prayer is action or nothing at all. Nehemiah prayed before he did anything; he prayed while asking the king to restore Jerusalem; as he faced opposition in Jerusalem he made his prayer and set a watch. All the way through he prayed. Courage and Sacrifice Necessary to Building the Walls Nehemiah took his life in his hands when he asked the king to let him go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. He was greatly afraid, but he asked any way. He was willing to sacrifice all to do God’s work. He gave up his high position in court. When he got to Jeru salem and found how poor the Jews were, he refused the governor’s allow ance and gave food generously to Jews and heathen from his own table. God’s work can never be done without sacrifices. Nor can a church move for ward if the great majority leave the giving-and-living-till-it-hurts to only a few. Unless Christ claims the first of a congregation’s time and money, God’s power goes out very diluted. A Negro preacher was giving a “trial sermon” before a congregation, inter ested in calling a new pastor. “ Bredren and sisters,” he said, “the church I’s the ★ ★ ★ HIS WORDS LIVE ON
pastor of has got to get up and walk.” The congregation all replied, “ Amen— let ’er walk.” The preacher talked on about building up the church in the community. He warmed up further and said: “ Bredren and sisters, the church that I’s the pas tor of has got to get up and run.” They responded with a shout, “Amen —let ’er run.” Greatly encouraged, the preacher , warmed up a few degrees further and let fly: “ Bredren, the church that I’s the pastor of has got to get up and fly.” Again the brethren and sisters shouted together, “Amen—let ’er fly.” ' Now the minister climaxed his ser mon, “ Bredren and sisters, if this church is gonna fly it has to have money.” The congregation sat up as if struck by a bolt of lightning. “ Let ’er walk,” they said. A new vision of the Lord Jesus that will melt our proud and cold hearts, help us to see the need of His work, and offer ourselves, our time in worship and service—that is our need. Sacrifice —do we really know what it means—to sacrifice for Christ who gave all for us? Working Together Necessary to Building the Walls Each man took a portion of the wall as his share to build; priests, nobles, merchants, mechanics—each did his part. We read in Nehemiah 4:6: “ So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.” With every one in his place doing his part, they did the job. A church cannot do God’s work and build God’s wall without the help of everyone. If one fails, there will be a gap where he has defaulted. Is your place on the wall a gap, only a few stones laid perhaps? An old saying says that if all the freckles got together they could be a tan. Whenever we fail to pull together we pull against the Lord Jesus. Whenever we disappear from the church work and worship, we leave gaps in the Wall. When we do not speak to others about the Lord Jesus, we fail to do Christ’s work. They built the wall because the people “had a mind to work.” Their minds were set to work. Literally, that means they had a heart to work. To do God’s work was the most important thing in all the world. They left their fields and ships and offices to do God’s work first. Do you do that? If the heart is not right, nothing is right. We used to sing, “ Every cloud will wear a rainbow, if your heart keeps right.” God’s order is first to prepare the worker, then do His work through him. Have you met the Lord as Nehemiah did, in prayer and tears? Are you willing to take your life in your hands, if need be, to speak for the Lord’s work as Nehemiah did to the heathen king? Will you work wherever the Lord assigns? Each place is equally important. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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