Building Beyond the Walls
Nehemiah 7:1-8:18 - 4 November 2007

Andrew Lim

After a long / hard struggle for the abolition of slavery
William Wilberforce finally won the victory in 1807
On the evening of the 22nd February 1807
news was brought to him of the victory
Wilberforce turned to his old friend Henry Thornton and said
“Well Henry / what shall we abolish next”

The joy must have been much the same for Nehemiah
the Governor of Jerusalem / when he finally rebuilt the walls
that he begins to ask what he should do next

Against great odds and opposition
Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem
And they did it in just 52 days

We find a shift of focus here in chapter 7
We move from focusing on rebuilding the city / to rebuilding the people

The first 6 chapters of Nehemiah deal with rebuilding the walls
The next 6 chapters of Nehemiah will with rebuilding the people

It isn’t going to be very good to have strong walls
but you’re weak in the inside

Its like having a beautiful church building
but the people inside are far from God

Nehemiah understands that once the walls of the city was rebuilt
it was time to concentrate on building up the people

Chapter 6 closes with the walls having been rebuilt
But Jeremiah’s passion for God / goes beyond the walls
He desired to see the people renewed inside

So far form chapters 1-6 / Nehemiah is very much in the forefront
But from chapter 7 onwards / it is God who takes centre stage

Walls and gates are no good without gatekeepers
who know what can or can't be allowed in

Chapter 7:1 / Now / “After the wall had been rebuilt
and I had set the doors in place / the gatekeepers and the singers
and the Levites were appointed” / v.1

Nehemiah begins by selecting reliable leaders

Nehemiah didn’t put just anyone in charge of the city
he’d just risked his life to rebuild

He first appoints his own brother / Hanani
In case anyone of you begin to think “Hey! That’s nepotism!
- selecting your own brother for this honour
But it wasn’t like that at all / Hanani had proven himself to be a man
who was concerned more for other people than for himself
It was Hanani you’ll remember who took that journey of two months
in order to give Nehemiah the news
that Jerusalem’s walls were in ruins

Next to Hanani / Nehemiah appoints another man with much a similar name
Hananiah / to be the commander of the citadel

And Nehemiah picked him because Nehemiah sees in him
two vital traits of a leader
- One /he is a man of integrity
- Two / we are told that “he feared God more than he feared man” / 7:2

Why is integrity so vital in a leader?
The Webster’s Dictionary defines integrity as:
“Uncompromising adherence to moral or ethical principles
soundness of moral character / honesty”

But who is the person of character / but the person of integrity
The Bible has a lot to say about integrity
because at the bottom of it all / integrity is a spiritual issue

Listen to the high premium God puts on integrity
1 Chron. 29:17 / “I know / my God /that you test the heart
and that you are pleased with integrity”
Prov. 10:9 / “The man of integrity walks securely
but he who takes crooked paths / will be found out”
Prov. 11:3 / “The integrity of the upright guides them
but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity”
Prov. 13:6 / “Righteousness guards the man of integrity
but wickedness overthrows the sinner”

Of course integrity means keeping to your word
but there’s more to integrity is more than just keeping your word
Integrity has everything to do with
- matching your words with your conduct
- backing up your words with your actions
Integrity is more than just telling the truth
It is / - being who you say you are
- being who you portray yourself to be

It is you being who you are in your home as who you are in public
I’ve said this before but a good way to test if we’re people of integrity
is to examine ourselves / to see if the image we project in public
matches up to who we really are in the privacy of our homes
In other words
Are you the same person in the light / when people are watching
as you are in the dark / when no one is watching?
The key factor / in the integrity equation / is consistency

Dwight Moody once said: “Character is what you are in the dark”
- what you are / when nobody else is watching

Somebody said: “The measure of a person’s character
is what he would do if he knew / he would never be found out”

For me / character to a person / is what his lungs are to that person
when the lungs cave in / everything else goes with it
when you character goes / nothing in your life stands up anymore

I mentioned last week I think that I have the privilege in the last two weeks
to sit in a panel of interviews to pick someone
for a prominent position for a prominent Christian institution

Let me say when all the impressive CV’s have been read and considered
for me personally / the one component that makes one candidate
stands out over all the rest is this / character

Let me quote to you / the words of Horace Greeley
Greeley once said: “Fame is a vapour / popularity an accident
riches take wings / those who cheer today may curse tomorrow
only one thing endures / character”

Nehemiah / when he needed to pick leaders
picked men who had integrity / and men who feared God above all
It was that way in the early church as they selected leaders / 1 Tim 3:8-10

Secondly / Nehemiah picks a man who fears God / Hananiah

What do we mean by ‘the fear of God’
Psalms 112: 1 declares it boldly: “Blessed is the man that fears the Lord”
Jeremiah 32:39, 40 / “I will give them one heart and one way
that they may fear me forever
for their own good and for the good of their children after them
and then verse 40 “I will put the fear of me / in their hearts
that they may not turn from me”
Jeremiah 5:22
“Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord.
“Should you not tremble in my presence?”
Duet. 6:13:
“You shall fear the LORD your God / and serve Him”

What is this fear of God really / It is the continual awareness
that I am in the presence of the Holy / Just / and Almighty God,
and that every thought / word / action and deed
is open before Him / and is being judged by Him!

There is nothing emotional unhealthy about this fear of God
Far better we fear God than people

There are at least four reasons why we need to fear God
First / God commands us to fear Him

Second / God is watching
“there is not a word in my tongue / but God know it all (Ps 139:4)
“The Lord is watching everywhere
keeping his eye on both the evil and the good” Proverbs 15:3

The third reason why we need to fear God
is His promise that every secrets will one day be exposed
“For we must all stand before Christ to be judged
We will each receive whatever we deserve
for the good or evil we have done in our bodies”
- 2 Corinthians 5:10

The fourth reason is this / Surely for many of us
the chief motivation why we fear God / is because we love Him
and don’t want to do anything to displease Him
A young girl was out with some friends
and they were trying to get her to drink / She refused
One said to her:
“What's the matter
Are you afraid your parents will find out and they’ll hurt you”
She replied / “No / I’m afraid my parents will find out
and I will hurt them”

Now that ought to be the most strong reason why we fear God
Its because we love Him and don’t want to do anything to displease Him


So Nehemiah has these two men put in place as leaders
These godly leaders / with their strong commitment to the Lord
was needed because there were treacherous Jews in high places
and leading families with powerful influences
involved in the politics of the community

Nehemiah was well aware of the fact that the enemy was real
and they must be on the defensive
it was not time to relax even though the wall was completed.
There was clear and present dangers

Read verse 4 – the city was wide and large
The threat was real and could come from many places
just like the threats for us as we live in this world

Nehemiah is wise to believe that once you’ve made certain progress
the gains you’ve achieved / must be guarded
so he gives them clear instructions as to how to safeguard the city

Vigilance if required of us at all times

And we all have cherished treasures to guard
Right through he Bible / God warns us to closely guard the border
We need to stand guard
over the borders of our church / our families / our own hearts

Fathers and mothers / you are to guard your home
from every demonic enemy that tries to enter
This means you are responsible for every book / every TV program
every DVD / every friend your child brings home

We need to pray for wisdom and discernment
perhaps more than at any other time in history
Fathers and mothers
Are you standing guard over your children’s hearts and minds
Are we bringing up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord?
A good prayer to pray for your children is Ps 144:12
“Lord / make our sons as oaks beside the waters of life
And make our daughters as polished stones in your palace
Keep them all from the schemes of the wicked one”

But there is something we all need to set a guard above everything else
God’s word says / “Above all watch over your heart with all diligence
For from it flow the springs of life” / Proverbs 4.23

The devil seeks to molest your heart
How do we guard our heart? / Three ways at least
First / Keep it full
Psalm 119 promises that if we’re treasuring God’s word in our hearts
it will keep us from sinning against God
Secondly / Keep it pure / Philippians 4:8
If I play around with lusts / or pride / or any kind of garbage
sooner or later my heart becomes so weak
I will totally succumb totally to the devils
Galatians 6:7 “God is not mocked / Whatever a person sows
that also shall he reap”
Third / Keep it undivided / Reserve your heart for God alone
Psalm 86:11 / “Teach me your way / O Lord
and I will walk in your truth / give me an undivided heart
that I may fear your name

I've wondered at times what it would be like
for a sports person / to be named the Sportsperson of the year
or for a soldier to receive the Victoria Cross
or for a writer to win the Pulitzer Prize
or for a preacher to be named among the 10 best preachers of the year

That moment / would represent the highest point that person’s profession

A priest and scribe by the name of Ezra reached such a pinnacle

After the people rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem
Ezra was called by the entire city to come and teach them the Bible

The people built Ezra a special platform to stand on
in the open square at the Water Gate
and for hours at a time they stood and listened to him

It says that in the crowd were "men and women
and all who were able to understand"

The word “understanding” is used six times in this chapter
God did not mean for the Bible to be a “magic book”
that changes us just because we read it

God’s Word must be understood before it can change us

Verse 3 tells us that he started reading at dawn and read until lunch
The people listened to the Word of God for over six hours!
We know from verse 18 that this continued for a week

The people went from sitting to standing
They were raising their hands / they were shouting “Amen”
Then they bowed down and worshipped
by putting their faces to the ground

The people’s first response was one of conviction and grief
they wept / they knew they had been neglecting God’s Word
their hearts were convicted by what they heard

But although it is necessary to weep sometimes
it’s not the final message God has for us

There comes a time when were have grieved over our sins
when the Lord wants us to begin to celebrate
- to stop mourning and to start celebrating

So v 10 says / “The joy of the Lord is your strength”

Yes / the Word of God cuts into our conscience / it brings convictions
it leads to repentance
But God does not mean for us to stop there
Because the same Word that wounds also heals

Remember what the prophet Jeremiah said
“When your words came / I ate them
they were my joy and my heart’s delight” / 15:16

Psalm 19:8: / “The precepts of the Lord are right
giving joy to the heart”

Just as it is wrong to rejoice / when our sins are as yet un-forgiven
it is wrong to mourn when God has forgiven us

But when God has forgiven us / He wants us to rejoice

Look at verses 10-12: “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks
and send some to those who have nothing prepared
This day is sacred to our Lord
Do not grieve / for the joy of the Lord is your strength”

And this is what they do / they go away to eat and drink
and to celebrate with great joy
because God has forgiven their sins

Joy is a gift from God
Ps. 126:3 / “The Lord has done great things for us
and we are filled with joy”

Joy is our possession / it is our birthright as children of God
It is a sign of the Spirit of God / the fruit of the spirit is joy / Gal. 5:22

It is interesting that the Word of God says “The joy of the Lord is your strength”

Joy has a way of strengthening you and I that we don’t quite understand
When you are joyful / you are not only greatly blessed
you become armed with significant spiritual power

And Satan wants nothing more than to snatch our joy
because he knows / that joy is the source of our strength

When we have the joy of the Lord / he cowers and runs away to hide
Because he knows that a joyful Christian has the strength of the Lord

Did you know that no one can take your joy away from you
Jesus made that promise to us / John 16:22
“No one can take from you your joy / Amplified Bible
“No one can rob you of that joy” / New Living Translation

This is the promise of our Lord / No one will take your joy away from you

If that is true / then when you lose your joy
it isn’t because someone has stolen it away from you
its because you have given it away

When Satan / the joy-snatcher lurks in your life / threatening your joy
that is the moment you can choose not to give it away

Many of us have come to the conclusion
that much of our emotions come from our will

We can make a choice to be happy / or to be sad

Fred Mitchell once wrote
“It does not matter what happens to us
our reaction to what happens to us is of vital importance”

Here the people started off sad
but they are encouraged to turn the day into one of joy
They made the choice to do so / and they were joyous

You have a choice right now / of how you are going to feel right now

Ps 28:7 in the Amplified Bible reads this way
“The Lord is my Strength and my impenetrable Shield
my heart trusts in / relies on / and confidently leans on Him
and I am helped / Therefore my heart greatly rejoices
and with my song will I praise Him”

The Word of God teaches us that we can make a choice
to turn your eyes away from your troubles and turn them to the Lord

Is. 61:10 / “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord / my soul will exult in my God”
the language there speaks of a specific choice being made

A strong emphasis on God’s Word is a primary mark of spiritual renewal.
Down through the centuries
God’s people have gone through cycles
where His Word has been neglected
and the spiritual condition of His people deteriorates

In His grace, God sends renewal.

Without question / one of the main marks of spiritual renewal
is a renewed love and devotion for God’s Word

The Reformation / which was a revival
resulted with people reacting against Roman Catholic Church
which had neglected the Word

John Wycliffe and William Tyndale translated the Bible
into common English / so all could read and understand

Martin Luther translated the Bible into German
John Calvin taught and explained the Word to the people of Geneva
The Reformation theme / sola scriptura / Scripture Alone
revived God’s people
The same thing was true of the great Puritan revivals
in England and America during the 16th and 17th centuries

Nehemiah 8 reveals four conditions of spiritual renewal

One / Unless God’s people read and understand God’s Word
there will be no renewal

Here in 8:1 / They read from God’s Word publicly from dawn until noon!

Paul tells Timothy to give attention in church meetings
“to the public reading of Scripture and teaching” /1 Tim. 4:13

Before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century
the Bible had to be copied laboriously by hand
and often there would only be one copy in a city
often chained to the pulpit

Understanding God’s Word is so vital / in medieval times
when not many could read / stain-glass windows
told the entire story of the Bible in a nut-shell

If there is no understanding there is no revival

Most of us can read / and we need to read and reread the Bible
all the days of our lives
If you desire spiritual renewal / it will come through God’s Word

Two / One / Unless God’s people hear His Word expounded
there will be no renewal

We need to hear God’s Word preached

Here in vv3,5,6 / we see the people
listening to the Word preached / with attentiveness and reverence

When God’s Word was read / they stood up as if to greet a royal visitor
and then they bowed down in worship

Be careful with our Lord has said / He said
“Take care how you listen / for whoever has
to him shall more be given / and whoever does not have
even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him”
Luke 8:18

God is here saying / when the Word is preached
listen reverently to what He is saying!

Rowland Hill was an 18th century English preacher greatly used of God
In one of his sermons Hill said
that some people when listening to a sermon
did not like the delivery of the preacher
Then he said / “Supposing you went to hear
the will of one of your relatives read
and you were expecting a legacy from him
You would hardly think of criticizing the manner
in which the lawyer read the will
Rather / you would be all attention to hear
whether anything was left to you / and if so / how much
That is the way to hear the gospel preached”

Three / Unless God’s Word must be taught / there will be no renewal
Verses 7,8 tell us that the men who stood on the platform with Ezra
explained the law to the people
they were translating the Word of God to make it clear

This is why preachers toil over their preparation
so the people will understand the sense of what the Word says
This is the reasons Bible scholars toil
to write Bible handbooks / word study books / commentaries
Bible encyclopedias / and theological books
This is the reason we do historical research
to discover the customs and that relate to the biblical text
This is the reason archeologists dig into ancient ruins
This is the reason pastors study the original biblical languages
or consulting scholars who do
in order to understand words and grammar

Because we will not be able to live how God wants us to live
unless we properly interpret His Word

Fourth / Unless God’s people must respond to His Word
there will be no renewal

It is spiritually dangerous to study the Word and not respond to it
It lulls you into a sense that all is well with you
just because you have read the Word or listen to it preached

Knowledge apart from obedience leads to pride

Here we see the people weeping
when they heard and understood God’s Word / 8:9

they respond to hearing the Word preached
they realize how much they had sinned against God
they send portions of the sacrifices that they could eat
to those who had nothing / 8:10
God’s Word inspired compassion in our hearts for the needy

Chuck Swindoll / in his book Hand Me Another Brick
tells of a time when he spoke at a family conference
He noticed a young couple with several small children
Although they looked and sounded like a Christian family
it was evident to him that they were very miserable
He knew that divorce was on the back burner of their minds

But as the week progressed / he saw that couple change
as they listened to the teaching of God’s Word
The husband hung on every word
The wife had her Bible open and followed the messages closely

At the end of the week / this couple came up to Swindoll and his wife
and said, “We want you to know that this week
has been a 180-degree turnaround experience for us
When we came / we were ready to separate
We’re going back stronger than we have ever been in our marriage”

But that joyous news was dampened by another family’s response

Chuck continues / “At the same conference with the same speakers
the same truths / the same surroundings / the same schedule

Another father was turned off / He wasn’t open
He attended the first few sessions but by and by
the guilt became so great and the conviction so deep
that he went home
He had stayed awake the entire night before
and reached the decision to leave and not come back
His family left hurting / perhaps even more than when they came

The difference between the two men was one of “attitude”
The couple who benefited had teachable hearts
The other man did not

Some people come to church with reverence for God and His Word
They pray / “God, teach me! I want to know You more!”
They are ready to respond to the Word
and they profit from the teaching
Others come to the same service with sin in their hearts
that they don’t want to deal with
They are turned off by the very same message that helps others
If you desire spiritual renewal / check your heart