Shabbat Shalom! Please take your Bibles and open it to the book of Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiah. Today, we are going to begin with Nehemiah, chapter 2, and we are going to read today just the first 10 verses. And I'm reading, beginning with verse 1. "And it came to pass, in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad? Seeing thou art not sick, this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.

Then I was very so afraid. And said unto the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad? When the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lies waste? And the gates thereof are consumed with fire. Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's sepulchre, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, The queen also sitting by him, For how long shall thy journey be?

And when will thou return? So he pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time. Moreover, I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come unto Judah. And a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber, to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the armies and horsemen with me. When Sanbalat, the Horonite, and Tuvaiah, the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. I'm going to stop here with verse 10, with the many lessons that we can learn here in this second chapter of the book of Nehemiah. Let me just remind you again, beloved brothers and sisters, that as we are studying Old Testament scriptures, the Torah, the Nevi'im, the Ketuvim, the Word of God, everything that was written aforetime applied to you and I's today.

You and I's believers in Yeshua the Messiah have to learn from what Shaul said in Romans 15:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:11 where he told the believers then and there, for whatsoever things were written aforetime, they were written for our learning, that we, believers in the present day, through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. So when we study the book of Nehemiah, we really learn these lessons for you and I today. How does that apply to the believers today? Well, we studied chapter one and we noticed that in the vast majority of the first chapter, Nehemiah was praying. He prayed first of all, he acknowledged God's greatness.

Number two, he confessed our people, Israel's sins. Number three, he pointed out to the fact that God is faithful to keep his covenants. And number four, he asked God to assist him and to prosper him because he wanted to go to build the walls of the city of Yerushalayim and to set up the gates that was burnt with fire. By application for you and I today, it's applied to the condition of the body of Messiah today in the last days in which you and I live in. The gates are burnt with fire. The walls surrounding the believers are broken to pieces. And we need, beloved brothers and sisters, men and women like Nehemiah to be raised among the people of God, to be a people of comfort, servants of blessing to the people of God.

And especially today, we do need that the Lord will raise in our midst men and women who love God, who love God's people, who love God's word and who want to serve him and lift up the walls and set up the gates in order to protect the believers and to be a blessing to the people of God. And so here in the second chapter of the book of Nehemiah, we have the beginning of the adventure that Nehemiah took to go to the city of Jerusalem all the way from Persia. And now to begin to work, to labor among his people Israel to build a wall, to set up the gates and to seek protection for the people of God.

Now on the chart here, you have the Persian kings in order. It begins with Cyrus, 536 to 530 B.C. And then we have this person called Cambyses, 529 to 522 B.C. Then we have Bardis, 522 B.C. Then you have Darius, 521 to 486 B.C. Then you have Zixis, the first, who reigned from 485 to 465. And then you have this man that is called Artabanius, who reigned from 465 B.C. And here we have Artaxixis. That's the one that we are talking about today. He was the one who commended Nehemiah to go to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem for about 444 B.C. And that's where we are situated in this second chapter.

We're at about 444 B.C. And this is the date in which Daniel the prophet received information from the angel from the time of the command to rebuild the walls in the city of Jerusalem. Then from that time on, you will count certain amount of years until the Messiah will come. And ultimately he will be cut off. He will die. And then there will remain one more week, seven more years that speaks about the tribulation period in which ultimately Israel at the end of the seventh year will be restored nation and the Messianic kingdom will be established. But we are talking about now in our second chapter at about 444 B.C.

and there this man by the name of Artaxixis was the king whose name we are mentioning here today in this ministry meeting. So here we begin. Notice that in Nehemiah chapter 2 in the first three verses with the king Artaxixis who asked Nehemiah what's going on why he is rather a sad man before him as he served him. Notice in verse 1 I want to make a note for you today it says in verse 1 and it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxixis the king that wine was set before him and I took up the wine and I gave it unto the king now I had not been said before his presence before.

That's how it began. You notice that it says in verse 1 and it came to pass in the month of Nisan remember beloved brothers and sisters when we began in our study of the book of Nehemiah in chapter 1 and verse 1 the month was the month of Kislev. Now four months passed by and Nehemiah did not yet receive an answer to his prayer. He prayed in the month of Kislev chapter 1 and verse 1 if you know your Hebrew calendar Kislev Tevet Shvat Adar Nisan by the time that we get to the month of Nisan four months have passed by. Nehemiah was praying and an answer didn't come. You and I might say well God Nehemiah desiring to receive an answer from you four months passed by and he's still in prayer waiting for the time that God will allow him to go and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the world thereof.

And that really teaches us a great lesson that God sometime will say yes to our prayer and sometime he will say no to our prayer but sometime he will say wait to the prayer of the people of God. And so while in 444 Nehemiah was desiring that God will send him to rebuild the city walls and the gates of Jerusalem he didn't immediately answer him. Let him wait for a while because God is sovereign and God has a right to give an answer in his time and in his ways. And so four months passed by from the time of Kislev and finally the months of Nisan have arrived and here Nehemiah now in the presence of Artaxexus the king serving him as the one that was the cup bearer.

Now apparently the king must have trust Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the cup bearer. He was serving him and he was the one who is responsible to taste the wine before the king is tasting it because if something would happen and would put poison in the wine it would be the cup bearer who would die first rather than the king. And the kings of Persia when they situate themselves as kings you could not move them. You could not change them just like this. In fact the only way to remove a king in the Persian time was either through their death or an assassination that may have happened in certain period of time of their history.

Well, look what happened. Nehemiah is now serving the king. In verse 1 we find out that it was in the month of Nisan and he is coming now to serve the king but when he is approaching the king notice what it says as I was serving in the 20th year of Artaxerxes the king wine was before the king and I took up the wine and I gave it unto the king now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Nehemiah must have been still sad as he was approaching the king. And you know brothers and sisters why was he sad? He was sad because the condition in Jerusalem.

The condition in Judea. His brethren were under oppression. The city gates were burnt with fire. The walls were broken down. He was sad because he cared for the people of God. And because he cared it affected him. It actually affected his heart but it also affected his features. You know when you and I sometimes are not feeling good and there is pressure in our lives it really brings about a change of our features on the face. You know there is a verse that I want to read King Shlomo Solomon said in his writing in Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 13. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.

But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. You see the reason that he was sad was because of the condition that existed in Jerusalem. But that affected his appearance. And because his heart is related to his appearance somehow when he was in the presence of the king his sadness was evident in the way that he's faced. Look you know sometimes you and I when we have trouble in our life when we have pressure in our life it affects us. So our hearts are grieved and therefore the future we cannot pretend so much that everything is going fine somehow it affects our appearance our countenance.

I am speaking for myself and you know it for yourself when things are not easy when the problem rises up in our life it does affect the countenance of the person. Well this is exactly what King Solomon said. Solomon said that when there is a merry heart it affects the countenance. You look very happy and everything looks fine. But when you have sadness and sorrow in your heart your countenance is no longer the same way it was before. And so he said I have never been sad in the presence of the king before in verse 1. So now the king sees him. Remember this is King Artaxixis.

In Hebrew we call him Artaxasta. He was the one who was the supreme ruler in those days of Nehemiah and Ezra. He was ruling over Persia and if anyone does anything that is not according to his will he is in danger of losing his life. Well it says here in verse 2 Wherefore the king said unto me Why is thy countenance sad? Seeing thou art not sick This is nothing else but sorrow of heart Then I was very so afraid You see when the king sees the servant that his face his countenance change he is kind of wondering Why is Nehemiah no longer like he used to be in the previous days?

He must have been a very cheerful man A man that was very helpful Was trustworthy by the king But this time he was sad He was never sad before But he was sad because of the condition of his brethren The condition of the city of Jerusalem So the king asked him Why is thy countenance sad? Why is it that you are sad? Nehemiah was really afraid Because he understood that his life was in danger Because the king could kill him Because of the fact that maybe something is endangering the king Maybe something happened Well Nehemiah was so afraid And then notice that what the king does It says in verse 3 That he said unto the king And now it seems to be It was a great door of opportunity For the servant of the Lord Nehemiah To speak to the king And to tell the king his problem And so he began in verse 3 In verse 3 He said unto the king Let the king live forever Why should not my countenance be sad?

Notice that he is concerned for Jerusalem When the city The place of my father's sepulcher Lies waste And the gates thereof Are consumed with fire He shared with the king his problem And he told him Listen The reality King Ahtazixis I am really troubled in my own soul Because the condition of my people The condition of the city of Jerusalem The condition of my father's sepulcher Is laying waste The gates thereof Are consumed with fire Why should not I be sad?

He was sharing with the king his heart And you can understand That Nehemiah would share this right now He had a great open door A great opportunity Where the king seems to ask him this question And that is a great opportunity To share the desires of one's heart We learn a great deal From those first three verses These show us the care That Nehemiah had in his heart For the people of God And for the place Where God set his name Upon in the city of Jerusalem The apostle Paul Teaches us the very same lesson He also had concern for the believers He also shows us how important it is To have a yearning desire

For the welfare of God's people He also showed us with many tears And many times in mourning He had a concern for the welfare Of the people of God And he taught the Ephesians this And he was telling them Listen, I am very much concerned For your welfare And I wept for you I prayed for you I'm longing to see you carry on In your walk with the Lord In fact, turn with me To Acts chapter 20 Paul in verse 25 He says these words Now, behold, I know that ye all Among whom I have gone preaching The kingdom of God Shall see my face no more Whereupon I take you to record this day

That I am pure from the blood of all men For I have not shunned to declare unto you The all the counsels of God Take heed therefore unto yourself And unto all the flock Over which the Holy Spirit Have made you overseers To feed the assembly of God Which he has purchased with his own blood For I know that after my departing Shall grievous wolves enter in among you Not sparing the flock He continued to share He says, listen, beloved brothers and sisters Of the Ephesians I want to tell you I'm leaving now And I'm not going to see you for a while But I want you to know My concern is for you, Ephesians

He says, I know That after my departure There will be wolves coming And not sparing the flock And the people of God Will be dispersed and scattered He had the heart of Nehemiah The same kind of a heart of care And concern for the people of God Well, Nehemiah said to the king Why shouldn't I be sad?

Look at the city Look at the gates I heard that the gates were burned The walls were broken down The people of God are in great distress Why shouldn't I be sad?

King Artaxerxes He should have been afraid Because he was in danger Yet God by divine design Have assisted him And opened the door for him To share his concern For the work of the Lord Don't you feel sometimes When you and I perhaps Want to serve the Lord In one area or another And we feel that There is so much opposition And we don't know How to handle the situation But our hearts are yearning To do that one thing for the Lord Or a certain thing for the Lord And there are so many things That are opposing The exercise of your heart And yet the Lord all of a sudden Opened a door of opportunity

And all of a sudden There is a great privilege Great door was opened And you share something That the Lord lay upon your heart And somehow Maybe it will be your boss Or maybe your superior Maybe it's people who oppose you All of a sudden They allow you The door is being opened And you are able to go To serve the Lord In the things which He had given unto you Look at another verse In 1 Corinthians chapter 16 In verse 9 Paul said A great door And effectual Is open unto me And there are many adversaries Yes the door is open I can go out and serve the Lord But there is a lot

of opposition That I am experiencing As I desire to serve the Lord Among his people Well that's exactly how Nehemiah had felt And yet the Lord Is opening for him Such a great door right now Through the king The very king That he may have Fought first That he will not allow him To go out To the city of Jerusalem To rebuild the city The very king Was now moved By the Lord And his heart now Is opening Towards Nehemiah To allow him to go To serve The people of Israel His Jewish brethren And so from verse 4 To verse 8 Artaxerxes Asked Nehemiah What does he want?

And Nehemiah Nehemiah Is giving him an answer Imagine now The king of Persia The one who is The supreme ruler Of the then known world Now is giving Nehemiah The opportunity To do his bidding To do his service And so look at this Verse 4 The king's questioning Nehemiah Then the king said unto me For what does thou Make a request? Now notice that Brothers and sisters It says immediately So I prayed Unto the God of heaven Now notice The beautiful thing That we learn here Nehemiah did not have Much time here To say king Artaxerxes Could you wait a moment? I want to go To another place To go on my knees To pray for 15 minutes I'm going to come back Just hold on For a moment No Nehemiah It says here It says the king said to him What do you want Nehemiah?

Nehemiah So I prayed unto the God of heaven And I spoke unto the king It's like a moment Or a second of prayer God have mercy on me Let me give you the list Of the things that I need It reminds me of Matthew chapter 14 When Peter was Walking on the water In the sea of Galilee And all of a sudden Peter began to sink Because he looked at the wave And everything The storm around him And he began to sink And he said Lord help me He didn't have time For 15 minutes To have some kind of A long prayer God and father And so on A moment He says help me Lord I need your help And he immediately went And he shared with the king The problem that he had And the needs that he had You see sometime We might not have A lot of time To spend in prayer Though we should Spend a lot of time in prayer But there are time coming That we just Have to ask the Lord In that one second Lord Please Help me And to carry on And do The things that we have to do This is exactly what happened here The king saying to him What do you need?

Nehemia What do you need? What do you make a request for? So I Prayed unto the God of heaven And I said unto the king Now again I would like to mention Brothers and sisters That he used the word The God of heaven In Hebrew Elohei Hashamayim Remember That in our previous study together Of Nehemia chapter 1 The first time that he used the expression I prayed unto the God of heaven Verse 4 of chapter 1 Verse 5 of chapter 1 Elohei Hashamayim Why?

To remind you That the times of the Gentiles Begin at 605 BC The Jewish people were taken captive Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar took our Jewish people to Babylon And therefore God had handed over The kingship The rulership Over this world To the Gentile world It began with Babylon It followed up by Persia It continued on by Greece And ended up to be by the Romans empire By the time Yeshua the Messiah came And it will culminate At the second coming of the Messiah When the Roman empire will be revived And ultimately the Messiah will judge the kings of this world And he himself will establish the Messianic kingdom We see this in the image that we saw

from Daniel 2 The image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a vision that Daniel gave him the interpretation So Nehemiah And by the way you and I today are still Even though we are part of the church age In the times of the Gentiles And the Gentiles rule this world still today Awaiting the day when Israel is restored When the Messiah will establish the Messianic kingdom And he will rule as king of kings and lord of lord At his second coming So Nehemiah He said I prayed Not now to the God of Israel But I prayed unto the gods of heaven Elohei HaShamayim Israel at that time still Have not been the one through the Messiah Ruling

and reigning over all the nations of the world They have lost the kingdom Awaiting the restoration of the future day And so he prayed to the God of heaven And he spoke unto the king This teaches us a great lesson That you and I sometime in a bind We don't have much time to make a list of prayers to the Lord But we can definitely say God be merciful to me Help me A sinner who is unsaved Can say in sincere way Before the Lord God be merciful to me A sinner A saint can say God assist me in my trial today And he can continue on And do the things that he or she

have to do And that's what Nehemiah Prayed to the God of heaven A short prayer A very concise prayer And then now he began to give the king A list of the things that he wanted And everything began with the servant of the Lord You notice that brothers and sisters He requested three things from the king But it began with himself And you notice what it says here in verse 5 He said unto the king The first request was Send me In Hebrew Notice that it says here in verse 5 He said unto the king If it please the king And if thy servant have found Favor in thy sight That thou would send me

Unto Judea Unto the city of my father's sepulcher That I may build it Sometime we expect everybody else To be sent And to do the ministry of the Lord's work But we do not participate in the Lord's work Nehemiah says Listen, I'm going to apply it first of all to me God send me That I will be the one that do the building You remember Isaiah Where the Lord said Whom shall we send?

And then Isaiah said Here am I Send me Send me Send me It began with a personal exercise Of the servant himself If we are going to do something for the Lord Don't expect somebody else to do that We individually have to say Lord what will you have me to do I want to serve you myself I want to take part in that labor And work that you called me to do Send me That was the first request of Nehemiah From the king He said to him in verse 5 If it please the king And if thy servant have found favor in thy sight That thou would send me Notice number one To Judea And to the city of my father's sepulcher Remember brothers and sisters The city is always Jerusalem Where Jerusalem Jerusalem was situated In the area that belonged to the tribe of Judah And in the whole area there Our fathers are buried If you go today To the land of Israel You will be on Mount Olives You will see the large grave site Where many many Jewish people Want to be buried Right in the Mount of Olives In the city of Jerusalem And elsewhere Many are buried in the area Why?

Because Jerusalem is the place of our forefathers When my mother died two years ago She died here in Canada And for some reason In my heart of hearts I felt really That she belongs to where she lived all her life Where she grew up To the city of Jerusalem We end up flying here And getting a grave site Next to my father in the city of Jerusalem Even though it would not be wrong to bury her here The point is There is something in the heart Of the Jewish people Even till today That say Listen This is the area of our father's sepulchre There I want to go Joseph wanted to be buried Jacob wanted

to be buried in the land The people of Israel want to be buried in the land That God had given the people of Israel He is not only mentioning That I want to go to that place But he is mentioning This is the burial sites of my fathers So he says Send me That I may build it Now you and I have the same kind of an exercise In our own hearts If we are going to serve the Lord We might not build the walls around the city of Jerusalem But we can definitely assist in the work of the Lord There are so many needs among the people of God Among the body of Messiah

Believers are discouraged There are people who are running to and fro Never find a place where they can get some rest and encouragement Like sheep going astray Not feeding on the person of the Lord You and I are responsible To build each other And to encourage each other And to support each other So we can be builders Of the body of Messiah It might not fix all the problems That existing today In the church But we can definitely seek to be builders There was a man that wrote in 1800 A pamphlet called "You're either a help or you're a hindrance" And the question of course rises Are we going to be like Nehemia If those

things apply to us And if Nehemiah's life is a good example for us You and I have to ask ourselves Do we want to build Can we say Lord send me I want to serve you I want to minister to the people of God And I tell you brothers and sisters We live in the last days of the Laodicean days The church age The Lord is coming soon And if the Lord is coming soon How much more men like Nehemiah Are needed among us May the Lord work this in our own lives So that was the first request But now notice that in verse 6 The king is responding to him And here you can

see that he agrees with him And it seems to be that the Spirit of God Worked in the heart of the king Artaxixis And notice the clause here And the king said unto me And then you have this little pause here It says The queen also sitting by him Now the question is Why is it that the Spirit of God Put this little thing called The queen also sitting by him Who is that queen?

This word for queen is not the normal word That we use in scripture The word that we use in scripture for queen Is malka Melech for king Malka for queen The first time the word malka is mentioned in the Bible Is in 1st King chapter 10 And verse 1 About the queen of Sheba Malkat Sheva She came to visit King Solomon But the word here is not malka The word here in Hebrew is Shegal This word Shegal is only mentioned twice in the Tanakh One time here And another time in Psalm 45 You find the word is Shegal And when it says the queen also sitting by him Shegal can also mean more than just

a queen It could be a companion It could have been a person that is related to the king It's not necessarily the word malka, queen The word is Shegal Now some Bible teachers believe That this queen or this Shegal that was sitting by him She, Esther The queen that was married to Achashverosh Zixis, the one who was the father of this man And she, if he was her son May very well have a great influence upon this man By the name of Arta Zixis Queen Esther You remember Esther is the name that she has in the diaspora But her Hebrew name is Hadassah And she became the queen Married to king Zixis Who had embraced

her to be his wife And you remember Vashti had to be taken out of the way Queen Esther was chosen from all the beautiful women in Persia at that time And it may very well be that this was the queen Esther Who is the Shegal here in this verse That had an impact upon him To influence him to give Nehemia the room to go to care It's not only of Nehemia's people But it was Esther's people And you remember how Esther saved all our Jewish people In the time when Haman wanted to kill all the Jewish people Years before So the spirit of God By divine design Putting this clause The queen Also sitting by

him And here's the king's Statement For how long shall Thy journey be?

And when will thou return?

So it pleased the king To send me Set him a time See the king Didn't want to lose Nehemia Really he was such a faithful servant He had to let him go Because he sensed the urgency that he has in his heart And he said to him You know Nehemia How long You will go And when you will return He wanted him to come back So it says here at the end of verse 6 So it pleased the king to send me And I set him a time Now how long time Nehemia would give him We do not know the length of time But if you will turn to chapter 5 And verse 14 You

will notice that Nehemia have gone for 12 years Look at this In verse 14 Of Nehemia chapter 5 Moreover From the time that I was appointed to be the governor In the land of Judah From the 20th years Even unto the 2 and 30th year Of Artaxerxes the king That is 12 years And I and my brethren Have not eaten the bread of the governor In other words What Nehemia is saying In chapter 5 In chapter 5 We learn that for 12 years He have gone to Judea To Jerusalem A little bit later on If you read in chapter 13 That after 12 years He have gone back To the king And then he returned

back To the city of Jerusalem So for 12 years Nehemia left Shushan the palace The city of Shushan He went to Jerusalem He built and he walked around The city of Jerusalem In the land of Israel He only returned After 12 years I don't know What happened Maybe he sent information To the king He says Listen I need more time And I need to stay To finish the job That I have here And the king allowed him But the king Asking this two-fold question How long is your journey going to be?

And when will you return? Nehemia Nehemia How long is it going to take? When are you going to return? So I set him A time The word for time Zman simply means That he set up A certain time A certain date But apparently 12 years it took him To be there In the land of Judea In the city of Jerusalem To help there With the situation there So number one He first of all Requested that He will be sent By himself Number two now Beloved brothers and sisters In verse seven He requested letters See Nehemia was a very practical man He was not merely a person Who was heavily minded But not earthly good Practically He knew what he was doing And so in verse seven Moreover I said unto the king If it please the king Let letters be given To the governors beyond the river That they may convey me over Until I come unto Judah He knew very well What was going to happen He was going to go across The Euphrates river And as he arrived to the area In the land of Israel The governors might say to him Who sent you?

How can you come to this area? Who gave you the permission?

So Nehemia said I want those letters from the king Notice letters here are plural Because everywhere he had gone There were governors there Can you imagine If he passed through area And a new governor And a new governor I needed to get a letter From the king That he gave the permission For Nehemia To come into the city of Judea So he was very wise You see brothers and sisters It's not only enough To pray to the Lord And yes we have to trust the Lord But we also have to take the responsibility In what we are doing To be practical You know A believer is not only Heavily minded But is not responsible In

a practical way Here in his or her life So Nehemia was very practical Yes he prayed He trusted the Lord But he was not waiting there And doing nothing He was taking the responsibility Oh yeah To pass the river I'm going to have those rulers there What I'm going to tell them They will ask me some questions Well here's a letter From King Artaxerxes Artaxerxes He told me He gave me the permission To come to the land of Israel And to the city of Jerusalem Now the third request Is found in verse 8 We find out that He is asking for additional Singular letter You notice that In verse 7 It's plurality of letters For

the governors But in verse 8 It was a singular Letter For the man by the name of Asaf And a letter Unto Asaf The keeper of the king's forest That he may give me timber To make beams For the gates For the palace Which appertained to the house And for the wall of the city And for the house That I shall enter into And the king Granted me According to the good hand Of my God upon me You know the third thing That he does He trusted the Lord And he's sharing with the king But wait a minute When I'm going to go to the land of Israel And I'm going to have to build

the wall What am I going to build them with?

I need some material What am I going to use?

You need timber You need wood You need to be able to Build the walls of the city of Jerusalem And the gate So he asked him for timber And so he asked him Give me a letter for Asaf He is the keeper of the king's forest And asked from Asaf To give me lumber And can you imagine He's coming to Asaf And giving him this letter Now Asaf may very well be On the other side of the river Close to Judea area But he will Give him The material To build The walls of Jerusalem And the gates And again brothers and sisters If we are going to build We have to build With some material

Now while here it was Physical material In our walk with the Lord In our building of the body of Messiah It is also some spiritual material You know yesterday In our Bible class Of 2 Corinthians The apostle Paul Showed us what kind of material He used for the building Of the body of Messiah And notice what it says In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 And he says in verse 4 But in all things Approving ourselves As the ministers of God We ministered to God We served the people of God We approved ourselves As a servant of God And then he gives us a list How did we minister?

In much patience In afflictions In necessities In distresses In stripes In imprisonments In tumults In labors In watchings In fastings By pureness By knowledge By long suffering By kindness By the Holy Spirit By the love unfeigned Verse 7 By the word of the truth By the power of God By the armor of righteousness On the right hand And on the left Paul How did you minister? How did you build? Well, he says Look at the material That we use in building If we were going to serve The people of God It must be With an attitude That is pleasing To the Lord That verses 6 and 7 Tells us By pureness By knowledge By long suffering We talked a little bit About long suffering In ministering to the people of God How long Is long suffering?

It's very long Patience Trials Coming in the life Of the people By love Unfeigned love He said By the word of truth By the power of God It was not done By our own power It was done By the power of God Now of course Nehemiah Was also gracious And loving To the people of God But he used material Now we are talking about The spiritual house of God And if we are to build The body of Messiah We ought to use The kind of Spiritual material That will be edifying And a blessing To the people of God To the body of Messiah Well here Nehemiah So beautifully He asked to send himself He asked

letters For the governors He asked letters For the one who is responsible Over all the timber And look at that It says in verse 8 It says But when the king granted me Nehemiah understood That it was according To the good hand Of my God Upon me In other words Yes The king had gave him This permission And gave him all the letters But really Nehemiah understood That behind the king There was a loving God The God of Israel The one that is In his good hand If allow me to receive This thing And you know In every service we do Beloved brothers and sisters Willing We are using things That the Lord Had given

to us to do But really behind everything It's the good hand Of God Upon us As we serve the Lord In the ministry Of the Lord And so beautiful to see that In the life of Nehemiah Now I want to mention One or two things About this passage And I mentioned it earlier But I just want to re-emphasize it One more time We need people Like Nehemiah Today We need brothers And sisters Who want to serve The believers In these dark days In which we live in today You know Yeshua Jesus is coming soon The church aid is soon Draught to the end In fact The time that we live in today Is very much

similar To the time in which Nehemiah lived in While there is a restoration To the truth of the word of God That happened a few hundred years ago You know In the dark ages They didn't have the Bible In their hand They were not teaching the Bible And so there was a revival In church history In the 1800s And so on As we have it In a chronological way In the seven churches Of Asia Minor There was a revival And the truth of the word of God And the preaching of the gospel Have gone forth into this world But we see that As time passes by There is a decline So we really live Beloved

brothers and sisters Very similar To the days of Nehemiah Yes The temple was built Now in Jerusalem But everything was broken Into pieces The walls were broken down And the gates Are burnt with fire So like today We live in a very similar days Now what do we do?

How do you and I handle The situation today When we can see that Everything is broken to pieces In every corner You have a church building This one has this name The other one has this name There is such a salad Of you never know where to go Who is the one who teaches the truth What shall we do? Well Paul warned Timothy And I want you to turn to 2 Timothy Paul said to Timothy How do we handle a time such as this?

2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 He says This know also This know also That in the last days Peerliest time shall come For men shall be lovers Of their own selves Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers Disobedient to parents Unthankful, unholy Without natural affection trucebreakers False accusers Incontinent Despisers Of those That are good Traders Heady High-minded Lovers of pleasure More than lovers of God Having a form of godliness But denying the power thereof From such Turn away Timothy Now Paul wrote 2,000 years ago But he wrote about now In the last days You see Nehemia Was now coming back To rebuild the walls The temple was already rebuilt But everything is still Now broken There's things Discouragement

And broken down And we live in exactly The same time today Of Ezra and Amaya And Paul's writing to Timothy In the second letter to Timothy And now notice Go back to chapter 2 He says Even though in the last days There will be such a condition By the way He's not talking about The world here In 2 Timothy He's talking about The professing church The professing assembly What we would call Christendom But then in chapter 2 He said Nevertheless Verse 19 In spite of what's going on Timothy And what will happen In those last days Nevertheless The foundation of God Stand sure Having this seal The Lord knows them That are his Timothy You

might not know Who belong to me But the Lord knows The foundation of God Stand sure It doesn't change Even though there is A chaotic condition And then he says In verse 19 Every one that named The name of the Lord Depart from iniquity And then notice Verse 20 It's a very interesting verse But in a great house There are not only vessels of gold And of silver But also of wood And of earth Some to honor And some to dishonor If any man If any man therefore Purge himself from these He shall be a vessel Unto honor Sanctified and meet For the master's use And prepared Unto every good work Timothy Let me tell

you The days will come In this so-called Body of Messiah Things are not going to get always Well there will be a decline In the last days Things are going to be So bad Timothy That the house of God Is now considered to be A great house This is what we would call today Christendom That many have many names Oh yeah I believe in Jesus But he is not God Oh I believe in Jesus But he is not born of a virgin birth Oh I believe in the Bible But you see There is no triunity in the Bible Oh I believe in God But you can lose your salvation And I don't know if somebody

Knocked at your door lately And saying That they are from The Jehovah witness See they believe in Jehovah And they are witnesses for Jehovah But Yeshua is not divine He is an angel Or something like that This is the condition Of the church in the last days Of the professing church And I am using the word church Simply Yeshua used the word Ekklesia Called out once And that is why He says in the last days That will be the condition Timothy So what shall we do?

Should we say God is not true?

Paul said to Timothy No Nevertheless The foundation of the Lord Of God Stand sure We may fail God's people may fail But God's word will never fail We can trust God's word We can lean on God's word And so he says How are we going to handle In a great house You have all kind of vessels Some are vessels of silver Some of gold But also you have vessels of earth And vessels of wood Some are honoring the Lord And some are dishonoring the Lord Then he says If a man Or a woman Therefore purge himself From these Then he Or she Shall be a vessel unto honor Sanctified And meet for the master's use

And prepared unto every good work You see Why we need people like Nehemiah today Because he prepared his heart as a vessel To be a blessing to the people of Israel Because he sought He longed To help To build To set up the walls To set up the gates So the people will be established And encouraged And blessed By the things of God His name says Nehemiah The comfort of Jehovah That's the kind of man he was And so I just mention this Because Whatsoever things were written The fourth time Were written for our learning And you and I Need to ask the Lord To help us In this As we too Are called to

serve the Lord In a time such as this And so now The last two verses Verses 9 and 10 Now finally Beloved brothers and sisters Nehemiah is ready to go And he's going to go now To the city of Jerusalem To the land of his forefathers To the place where he had So much yearned to go And look what we read In verses 9 and 10 In verse 9 it says Notice it's a personal story I came to the governors On the river And I gave them The king's letters See he went Very wisely Here's a letter for you And here's a letter for you And here's a letter for you I have permission By

king Artaxerxes and not only so Look at this How God worked In the heart of the king Artaxerxes And B The king had sent captains Of the armies And horsemen with me Can you imagine?

The king sent along with him People to protect him And the captain himself I remember about Probably 11, 12, 13 years ago I went to St. Petersburg In Russia To preach the gospel On the streets of St. Petersburg I'll never forget that We were a group of Messianic Jewish people Handing our tracts When the iron curtains fell So it must be more than 25 years ago And I'm so thankful Because they gave me A personal guard And I was handing my tracts And all of a sudden A man came to me And said This is Israelski propaganda I was shivered Because what am I Jew doing in Russia All the Jews leave Russia And this Jewish guy come to Russia I said what in the world am I doing?

You know when you are younger You are not thinking so much Of course we had a heart Desire to serve the Lord But when this guy came And he said to me You come with me in Russia And I didn't understand much Russia I know now a little bit more Slava Bogo and so on But nevertheless This man who was my guard Said what do you want from him? Leave him alone And the guy left me alone And we had some sort of guards That they were just watching of us Because they knew It was a tough time To be there handing out tracts On the streets of St.

Petersburg But yes He said I know I need to trust the Lord Nechemia could trust the Lord He said Well the Lord will protect me But he sure was something else When he came and he says Here's the letters And by the way This is the guy Who is the captain of the army And the horsemen of King Artaxas I can assure you that the government says quickly Go pass along You not only have the letters But you have the horsemen The protectors Who came along to protect Now of course Nechemia trusted the Lord But it sure was a great help The Lord provided for him That protection As he entered into the land of

Israel Into the city of Jerusalem Now finally brothers and sisters Look what happened in verse 10 You would think That when Nehemiah coming to Israel To Jerusalem To help the Jewish people That everybody will be happy You see It says in verse 10 When San Balat The Horonite And Tuviyah The servant The Ammonite Heard of it It grieved them exceedingly That there was come A man to seek The welfare of the children Of Israel It grieved them This man by the name of San Balat And the other man By the name of Tuviyah These were two What is known to us As the Samaritans Who already opposed The children of Judah Remember the Samaritan We

talked about it in John 4 The Samaritan woman And how the Samaritans came about We can share a little bit more about it In our next ministry meeting But if you notice If you quickly turn to Nehemiah 4 Verses 1 and 2 We read Listen to that But it came to pass That when San Balat heard That we builded the wall He was wroth And he took great indignation And he mocked the Jews And he spake before his brethren And the army of Samaria Shomron Apparently San Balat Apparently San Balat Was a Shomroni Who opposed The Jewish work In the city of Jerusalem The building of the temple The building of the wall And the

establishing of the order That God has set And had given to the children of Israel So what happened is That when he came Everybody will be happy He immediately find That he grieved San Balat And Tuviyah That there was a man That came To seek the welfare Of the children Of Israel What you will learn from that Brothers and sisters If you are going to serve the Lord If I am going to serve the Lord If we are going to seek To be a blessing to the people of God And assure you That the enemy will seek to oppose The servants of the Lord You will find very quickly That Satan opposed the work That

the world opposed the work And also the flesh in men Opposed the work of the Lord But Nehemiah carried on So may the Lord help us To learn from Nehemiah In spite of opposition So we can be a blessing To God's people And honor the Lord In our service for Him