This is a Great Work

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER 2025 - MR HENRY CASKEY

NEHEMIAH 6 VERSES 1 TO 4

Nehemiah is an interesting character. On many occasions I have been encouraged and challenged as I go through this book. I see something of the great lengths he would go to to serve God. He left a palace behind him in Shushan. As he gazed out from these walls he could see the ruins. He was the man you would go to in time of trouble. He shows tremendous leadership. He comes down to Jerusalem. He united the people. They were discouraged and displeased. The first thing he brings them together and guides them through dark and difficult days. He has left a great legacy. This sets the same example for pastors, elders, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders - not to be scared away from the work of God. There is a stamp on this man's character - verse 3 "I am doing a great work". What had happened? The enemy tried everything in its power to stop this work, to bring this man down. He used threats, violence, to stop him in leading the people to rebuild the walls. Nehemiah says "No I am doing a great work." The enemy came after him with threats and violence. Now they come and say "let's stop and talk about the issues facing us." It might have been a good chance for him to take time off the work. He was about the king's business and it required haste. Nothing would stop him. Doesn't the devil do that with us? He will set up road blocks and try to tell us we need to take a rest. It would be easy to do that. Have you ever looked at the work of God and thought "it's a great work"? We see people coming in through the doors, getting out in the street preaching the word of God but we need to be careful. We can see the enemy coming in as the wolf dressed as a lamb. Nehemiah tells them he is doing a great work. Looking at this great work. Lets stop for a moment. There are people who come around you and do that. They tell you how good a person you are. At the same time they want to pull you down.

The vexing here of the work. The work was being attacked, criticised, despised by all its enemies but Nehemiah did not see that. Imagine coming in from Shushan the palace. He had heard what was happening in Jerusalem chapter 1. He hears of a work that breaks his heart. The walls are broken down, the gates are burned with fire, the people are depressed and scattered. The work was in an awful state. He gets down before God and weeps. He confesses and seeks God about it. Let's not make the excuses today. Let's get down before God and begin to pray. "You will seek for me and find me when you seek for me with all your heart." To pray without ceasing. I am sure in reality it was worse than he heard. Nehemiah saw a great work he was involved in. He was so privileged to be in it. Is that our mind today? Do we feel privileged to do God's work? The gates were burned down, the walls demolished, the people had given up. Today we see churches under attack. Has it ever been any different? In Acts 12 verse 1 we read that Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church. Those who were preaching the word of God. The church was being attacked. Men and women were being redeemed. Herod arrested James and killed him. When he seen this pleased the people he decided to arrest Peter also. Nehemiah left Shushan behind and travelled to Jerusalem. God had placed it in his heart to rebuild Jerusalem's walls. He was coming with a different spirit. His enemies Sanballat and Tobiah heard about him and it grieved them exceedingly. A man was coming to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. Caleb had a different spirit. Remember when the spies were sent out into the land of Canaan and brought back their reports. Caleb followed the Lord with all his heart. He believed that if God was for them they could then take the land. The people rose up to kill Caleb. They were vexing Caleb. "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Some times we get discouraged. Paul had a different spirit. He was rejected from town to town. Christ had a different spirit when he hung on the cross. We will be opposed as we seek to follow the kingdom of God. Are we holding on today? Have we the intention of building God's work?

The vocation of the work. This was God's work. This is the work God has called me to do. Never lose sight that this is God's work. Never lose sight of God's calling on your heart. God has placed it there. You are responsible for it. One day we will give an account of what God has given to us. We are not here for riches and prosperity but to see God honoured. God has called Nehemiah to do this work. He was following God's plan. God's work done in God's place. Wouldn't it have been lovely to see into Nehemiah's mind. He was in the palace, a responsible job, number 2 to the king. No-one could come in to see the king without Nehemiah's say so. He was there working. Then he went to Jerusalem. He sees the rubble, the dirt, stones and ashes. People could neither lead them or drive them yet he says "it is a wonderful work." Nehemiah tells us in chapter 2 verse 12 "I arose in the night." Many a time we will waken in the night. God stirs you with the responsibility of his work. The burden he carried. "Neither told I any man what God had told me in my heart what to do in Jerusalem." That is why he is there. That is why he could say to the enemy "I cannot stop, I am going to make sure I will do it to the end." They tried to stop him with threats, blackmail, by deception. "I am not stopping, this is a great work." Nehemiah was where God would have him to be. That is important - that we realise that God has us in his place, right where he could use us. Elijah had called down the fire from heaven. Next he is fleeing from Jezebel. She threatened to put him to death. He went out into the wilderness. Sitting in a cave God comes to him "Elijah what doest thou here?" He was not where God would have him to be. Not in a cave feeling sorry for himself. Nehemiah was here because God sent him there.  That makes the different. An old pastor once said to me "make sure wherever you go that you have the word of God to back it up because there will be many a time you have to prove God in that situation." Nehemiah was in this place Jerusalem because God had sent him there. This was his vocation. The calling of God for his life. He had a meeting with God. He got down before God praying and pleading. The right man was chosen for the task. "God does not promise you an easy life, sometimes there will be temptations, tests and tears." The old preachers used to refer to it as stickability, sticking at the work. It is very easy to give up but Nehemiah was not for giving up. In Acts 13 in the little church in Antioch there were in the church certain teachers and prophets. Each was doing their own task and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said "separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." This little church was working for God, doing all sorts for the Lord but also listening to the Holy Spirit. Maybe today God has a task for you today do. God can use you if you are willing today.

The value of the work. In chapter 2 Nehemiah goes out by night to assess the work. He sees the walls in ruins and the gates burned. He is on a donkey surveying the work. He has to get off at a certain place because the donkey cannot walk through it. The old devil says you will never see that person saved, come into church, see the work revived. Sometimes it is hard. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. He looks at the rubble and ruins. He says it is a great work. There must have been mountains of broken down stones, awful dust and ashes yet he did not look at that but rather at the work of God. He saw so much to discourage them. Those he thought who would stand behind him and encourage him didn't do it. Nehemiah says it is a great work. How do you value the work of God today? How do you value that little task God has given you? "I am only a Sunday school teacher." It is a great work to instil and nurture someone. They could be saved from their sins, they could know that God loves them. Maybe you are saying "I don't have any job except being a door keeper." Some of us couldn't even do that. Maybe you are a cleaner - wouldn't it be awful to see cobwebs when we come into God's house? Forget about the enemy telling you it is no work - it is a great work. No matter what you are asked to do, do it for the Lord. Have you taken time to ask the Lord for a task? Have you shared it out with everyone else?

The victory of the work. Nehemiah kept at it after he made his inspection. He knew it would not be easy. Nehemiah 2 verse 18 "then I told them of the hand of my God." He was starting to speak to them now. God has told me the way to go. When the people heard him they said "let us rise up and build and they strengthened and the work began." The enemy tried all along to stop this work but they couldn't. Nehemiah 6 verse 13 "the wall was finished in 52 days." The enemy had to concede for they perceived this work was wrought of God. What a blessing. Nehemiah was. What a blessing you could be in this work. 

The story was told of an evangelist in Wales many years ago. He went into a village to do a gospel mission and preached for 3 weeks night after night. The sad thing was no-one came. Night after night he went through the same thing. On the last night he put out the lights and locked the doors. Six months later he was passing through the village. He stopped in one of the shops. A lady standing at the counter said to him "you are so and so, you came about 6 months ago to the little hall down the street. You went in every night and preached but no one turned up." He said "that is right". The lady said "I got saved after you left. When I thought that you would do that then you must have some God. I cried out to the Lord for forgiveness of sins. He saved my precious soul." Don't give up. You are doing a great work. God's blessing will come.