In Search of a Heart
Dr. Terry Anglea
Dr. Terry Anglea is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Bourbonnais, Illinois.
“Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah 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. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.” (Nehemiah 2:9-12)
I want you to notice that phrase in verse 12 – “...neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart…” I want to speak to you this morning on this subject: “In Search Of A Heart.”
Please bear with me for about five minutes as I testify a little bit. It was June of 1976 somewhere outside of Jacksonville, Florida, in a church service on a Sunday evening. The boys’ ranch where I was staying at the time traveled and raised support for the ministry. It was a faith based-ministry. The man who ran it had been saved at the Lighthouse down in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Brother Roloff sent him off to Tennessee Temple. He went through Bible College there for four years and graduated. When he graduated, he went north of Chattanooga and bought fifty-five acres of property on a mountain. Walden’s Ridge. Some of you might remember Mike Crane and Fort Bluff, Judo and Karate for Christ. That’s an old-time ministry, but Mike had his camp up on that same ridge.
That’s where the boys’ home was that he started, a ranch for troubled young men. I had been saved while there at the ranch nine months earlier in October of 1975. I was just excited to be a born again Christian, thrilled to be a child of God. I was set free from all the load of sin, and some of you know that feeling. What a joy!
I remember very well that night in 1976. We had been at a different church for the morning service, and we drove through the afternoon to a church outside of Jacksonville. That church had something similar to what was very popular in Southern Baptist churches at the time called BTU: Baptist Training Union. It was like a Sunday School, but it wasn’t broken down into as many grade levels. It lasted for about maybe 45 minutes before the evening service, and it was very common back in those days. That night, they had a combined service; they had the children come in and the teens, and all of the adults, because one of their boys was home from his freshman year of Bible college, and the pastor had that young man preach. You’re talking about probably a nineteen year old young man preaching to his home church.
I was sitting on the front row because that’s where I always sat. I was in my normal church mode. I will say that my normal church mode was not, “I sure hope this gets over soon.” No, my normal church mode was, “I can’t wait til the preaching starts! I’m ready! God, please speak to me. What can I learn today? What’s the man of God going to say?” I’m not making that up. That’s what was in me.
It was like when Peter said, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (I Peter 2:2-3) I had tasted of God’s grace, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I was always hungry for more. So I was sitting in that service, and while that young man was preaching away, it seemed like I lost all awareness of everything that was going on around me. It was like I was sitting by myself in that auditorium, and it was just me and that young man, one on one. While he was preaching, God was saying to my heart, “That is what I want you to do. I want you to preach.” And immediately I put up my arguments about why I couldn’t.
That young man finished his message and the pastor dismissed the crowd. We had about 15 minutes before the main service started, so I went and found an empty room in the building and closed the door and got on my knees. I said, “God, I can’t do that; but if you want me to, I’ll obey you. I’ll do what you say.” I asked Him to confirm what He wanted me to do from the Bible, and I can still take you to the verse that was preached on in the service that night.
On Wednesday night, we went back to the ranch, and our pastor was out of town. We had a guest speaker, and it was a nasty night because it had been raining. To be honest with you, I don’t remember the guest speaker being very interesting; but he got up to read his text, and this is what he read: “Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.” Then he read verse 20: “And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.” (I Chronicles 28:10, 20)
I know what that context is; I know it’s about a Temple building. But can you see how God used those verses? I had just prayed three days earlier, “God, please confirm the call from the scripture.” And He did. I knew it in my heart and soul. And that night, I went forward and surrendered my life to preach. It’s really special when God puts something in your heart.
In verse number 12 in our text in Nehemiah, he testified that God had put something in his heart for him to do in the city of Jerusalem. After a long journey from Shushan to Jerusalem, Nehemiah rose up in the middle of the night, and he began to ride around the walls of that city. As he did, there was something that was burning in his heart that God had put there. Something that needed to be done for the welfare of the people of that great city. God wanted him to rebuild the walls and the gates. They had been burned and destroyed by the Babylonian army. The city was a sitting duck; there was no defense to keep enemies out.
And that is what God put in Nehemiah’s heart to do for the welfare of the people of that city. God wanted him to rebuild the wall and the gates. This was not a personal dream. It was not some kind of self-imagined, self-centered plan to establish some kind of an empire or promote himself. This was something that God had put in his heart. And I believe that God is still in the business of putting things in the hearts of people to do for Him, for His cause, for His glory, for His Gospel in this day.
God is still putting on hearts that kind of calling to do His work and His will. God’s work is not done! Listen young people! There may be less people interested in God’s work, but God is still interested in God’s work. And God is still seeking for people whose hearts are available for Him to put something into their hearts for the welfare of others. I want to make some observations about this today for us who are living in this day and age.
They had seen some glory days in the past.
First of all, I want us to know that Israel had seen days of glory in the past. If I read the Bible correctly and understand Israel’s history, she reached what we might call her peak of glory, her zenith, under King Solomon. Now, David was a great king, and God did wonderful things for Israel under David’s leadership; but things got even better for a while under Solomon’s reign. The Temple was built, and what a magnificent building it was! There was so much gold in Jerusalem at that time that silver was practically obsolete. It was no big deal. Silver was kind of like a penny, basically nothing. That’s how much gold there was!
The queen of Sheba came up from the south to see all of it, and all she can do is walk around with her mouth hanging open! Solomon got through showing her around, and he said, “What do you think?”
She said, “What do I think? I’ve heard so much about this place, that I didn’t think it could really be true. And yet, now that I see it with my own eyes, I’m finding out that the half of it has not been told to me!” The wealth and the influence, and the might and the blessings of God on Jerusalem at that time were without measure.
According to Jeremiah, the kingdom wore a crown of all the nations. But things had gone downhill. Solomon’s end was a complete failure. Under his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom split, and it was a downward spiral from there. The Northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity, and the Southern Kingdom fell into Babylonian captivity. Later on, Jeremiah would write Lamentations 5:16: “The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!” And no doubt, inhabitants of Israel and Jerusalem would talk and reminisce about the glory days; kind of like some of us do about Independent Baptist Fundamentalism. We talk sometimes about the past, and there were days of glory in the Independent Baptist world in years gone by.
I left that boys’ home in August of 1976 to prepare to go off to Bible college. When I got to my home down in Atlanta, I found out that John R. Rice was hosting the Sword of the Lord conference in Atlanta. There were some good sized churches in Atlanta in those days. There was Dr. Curtis Hutson’s church in Decatur, Forest Hills Baptist Church. People’s Baptist Church, Charles Wright had a pretty good sized work. There were some good sized churches around the Atlanta, Georgia area; but there was not an auditorium in or near Atlanta large enough to hold the crowds that came to those meetings. They had to put them in the Atlanta Civic Center, a massive place. It was jammed! Those types of venues were needed to hold the crowds that came to those preaching meetings. They had done the same thing in Detroit and Indianapolis! They had to go to, if you’ll put it this way, secular venues to hold the crowd of Independent Baptists that were going to come to a meeting!
I’m just being honest! There was a day when the largest church in almost every state was an Independent Baptist church. Some of you remember that. Most of those churches had thriving schools, people were being reached with the Gospel, converts were being baptized, missionaries were being sent out, buildings were being built, schools were being started, conferences were being packed out. It was nothing for churches to load up a couple of buses with their members and drive an hour or two to go to preaching meetings!
You know, maybe things today aren’t exactly what they were in years gone by. The crowds at special meetings are not quite as large. I don’t know of anybody in our camp of Independent Fundamental Baptists that hosts a meeting that has to be held in a secular venue. Maybe the big days aren’t quite as big. Maybe our churches aren’t quite as large.
I asked an evangelist recently who preached for us, “What is the average size of a church that you preach in in America?”
He said, “The average is 75 to 125.”
Maybe things aren’t quite as big and awe-striking. Kind of like the nation of Israel after the captivity. To some, the new Temple was definitely not as grand as the old Temple; but God still had something that He wanted done for that new Temple, and thank the Lord, He found a man with a heart that He could put something into to do something for that city! That man was serving as the king’s cupbearer when God began to work in His heart.
Friend, God still puts things in the heart of people to do for Him today. Nehemiah did not stop to consider that the new Temple would not be what the old Temple had been. He did not stop to think about the fact that it would not be as magnificent or as grand. He just knew that his heart was burning deep within him. There was something that God had put in his heart for him to do, and he was eaten up to get it done! God is still looking for that same kind of heart.
Do you remember the parable of the householder who went out to hire laborers for his vineyard? He went out at six o’clock in the morning and hired some guys to work in his vineyard, and he came back at nine o’clock in the morning and hired more; he came back at noon and hired more. He came back at 3:00 p.m. and hired more; then he came back at 5:00 p.m.! There was only one hour left in the workday.
Now folks, think about that: these other labourers had been working in the vineyard for eleven hours, and there was only one hour left in the work day, but that did not matter to the householder! There was still daylight left, and there was still a harvest!
Maybe there wasn’t as much harvest left to gather as there had been at the beginning of the day, but he didn’t say, “Well, we got most of it in, so let’s just take off the last hour.” No! Here’s what he said: “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” And they said, “Because no man hath hired us.” Then he said, “Go ye also into the vineyard.” Young men and young ladies, no matter how large the man’s vineyard was, there obviously was less to harvest than there had been at the beginning of the day because the people had been working there for eleven hours! But it didn’t matter to him. There was still daylight left. There was still something to do.
We talk about being in the last days. We talk about this being the end, and that we think we’re close to the Rapture. I believe all of that is true; but guess what? If there’s only thirty minutes of daylight left, the Householder is still looking for labourers! The Householder is looking for some man who He can put something in his heart to do for God and for the welfare of the people. God still wants to put something in the heart of His people to do for His cause.
There were still some glory days coming in the future.
The people of Israel had seen days of glory in the past; but let me say secondly that Israel still had some days of glory to come in the future. When God put something in the heart of Nehemiah, the glory days of the nation of Israel under David and Solomon were behind them. But I want to tell you something: they still had some really good days ahead of them, too.
That Temple and those walls stood until about 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed it, which means that that building lasted approximately 600 years before it was destroyed. It stood for several hundred years. It wasn’t as magnificent or jaw dropping as the first temple, but for several hundred years it functioned. Sacrifices were offered, songs were sung, the scriptures were read in that building. It may not have been as magnificent, but it was still effective. It was still useful. It was still very much needed, and God blessed it for a long time.
Folks, God still has a work to do, and He is still looking for people into whose hearts He can put something for them to do for Him. Young people, listen: it matters not how big or little the work becomes. How popular or how well-known…those are not the things that matter. What matters is that there will always be the welfare of some people to seek. There will always be people that need help!
Now, this is just speculation, but I would imagine that the people living in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day were really happy to have a wall built around their city. I imagine that they were happy and grateful. Why? Because they felt safe and secure. I don’t think they walked around and said, “Shoot, this thing ain’t half of what the other one was.” They weren’t negative and discouraged about the wall. They weren’t comparing the wall that Nehemiah had built to the former walls. Many of them had never even seen the former walls!
“Well, you know, things in fundamental Baptist churches aren’t what they used to be.” We need to stop that kind of talk! I’m as guilty of it as anybody, but people who get saved and helped and influenced today are very thankful and blessed! They aren’t weeping because things aren’t like they used to be. They have no idea of what those things used to be! They’re just happy to be saved, and to get to go to church, and sing, and pray, and fellowship, and hear God’s Word preached and have their hearts helped. These new converts are not moaning and groaning about missing the old days, because they don’t have any idea what the old days were like! They’re as happy as they can be.
By the way, who is to say that those days in Israel didn’t end up being even more glorious than Solomon’s days? Because about 550 years after this took place, there was a young couple that walked through those same gates and that wall that had been rebuilt, and they carried a little eight day old baby boy in their arms. They were doing what the Jewish law required: they were coming to present Him to the priest. He was an unusual boy. The woman carrying Him was His mother, but that man with His mother was not His father. It was Mary carrying Jesus, God the Son, through those rebuilt walls to that rebuilt Temple. That first Temple had only seen pictures and types of Jesus. This second Temple had Jesus Himself come to it! So you tell me which Temple was really more magnificent.
What’s more glorious? The picture, or the person? Can you imagine a mother with a boy in years gone by in the middle of World War II; and when he left to go fight, she took his picture and put it in a very prominent place there in the house, and every day, she looked at that picture and longed for her son to return. The day finally came where she was in the house, and there was a knock on the door. She ran and opened it up, and her boy was standing there on the porch. Do you think that she went, “Oh my!” And then she ran and grabbed that picture and kissed it and jumped and danced around the house? You think that’s what she did? No! Forget the picture! The real person is here! That old Temple had only seen the picture of Jesus through the sacrifices and offerings. In the new Temple, the person of Christ Himself was there.
Can God put something in your heart?
Israel had seen days of glory in the past, they still had some days of glory to come in the future, and my third point is just a question: Can God put something in your heart?
You know, Nehemiah was just going about his day as a cupbearer for the king when God put something in his heart. Nehemiah had his job, his life, his income, his routine, his comfort zone. But he heard a report about his homeland, and the homeland was in trouble. He wasn’t a man that was so concerned with what he was doing and the plans he had that there was no room for God to put something in his heart.
Can God put something in your heart, young people? It concerns me sometimes. There’s this concept among young people in school that you’ve got to get your own plans made, and you’ve got to get your goals for your life. I’m not against goals and plans! But amidst all of that, there needs to be a little room where God can put something in there, place something in your heart, and change the whole thing.
Is there room in your heart for God to put something in there? Is there a place for God to put His burden, His desire, His vision for your life? Or is it only about your vision, your desire, and your burden? I’m sure there were many uncertainties when God put this burden in Nehemiah’s heart. I’m sure he had many questions, and you might have questions too! But when God puts something in your heart, He works out all the details!
When God put that call to preach in my heart, I talked to someone and said, “What do I do now?”
They said, “Go to Bible college and sit under Dr. Jack Hyles.” I didn’t know anybody in Hammond! It was a pretty good-sized place. I knew absolutely nobody! You kind of like to go places with somebody you know! I didn’t have any money. I had a car that was worth $4,500 dollars. I called my dad and said, “Would you sell the car for me? God has put something in my heart.” That’s how I paid for my first semester at Bible college. Some people won’t go to college because they don’t have a car; I had one and sold it so I could go. It’s called abandonment. I’m not bragging, I’m just telling you what happened.
How was Nehemiah going to get from Shushan to Jerusalem? How was he going to get everything done? I’m sure there were tons of questions, but when God puts something in your heart, He works out all the details! He’s looking for that complete abandonment to His vision, His burden, and His will!
Don’t you know that God worked through King Ahasuerus himself to help Nehemiah! “King, I need some time off.”
“Where are you going?”
“I need to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall over there.”
“Well, sure, I’ll give you some time off. Be sure to come back.” And God raised up others to catch the vision and help him when he got to Jerusalem.
Folks, you don’t need to know everything for the next 20 years before you surrender and start obeying and start following God’s call! All God needs from you is enough space in your heart to put something in there that He wants you to do for Him! That’s all He needs! Can God put something in your heart?
I want to say just a word of precaution to the young and to the old in this room: for those of us who are older, we need to be careful that we don’t have a mindset that there are no days of glory ahead. “Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)
My heart is greatly encouraged by the number of young men who are assuming pastorates of churches. Young men who are squared away. Young men in their late thirties and early forties – and yes, that’s young – who are squared away and settled on the King James Bible, settled on their music, their standards and convictions. Young men who are settled on the old-time religion and glorifying and serving the God of Heaven who says, “For I am the Lord, I change not...” (Malachi 3:6) And when you go to their churches, sometimes there’s an excitement and energy there. So don’t assume that the glory days of the past will never be repeated and that there are no glory days in the future. These young men need to be encouraged to do what God has put in their heart to do.
For those who are younger: if God puts something in your heart to do for Him and for the welfare of others, then be careful that you don’t remove the foundation of the old Temple. The first wall was built on a good foundation. How do we know that? Because when Nehemiah got there, he did not bust that foundation all to pieces and start with something new. You know what he did? He removed the rubbish, and rebuilt on that old, solid foundation that had held those walls up for 400 years.
I’m gonna say something…I hate to say it, but it’s true: Every generation of Independent Fundamental Baptists leaves some rubbish behind. We do! The generation that was before us left some rubbish behind, and so did the generation before them. And when we’re all gone, no matter how much we’ve sincerely tried to do right and glorify and serve God, we are humans and sinners, and it’s certain that we’re going to leave some rubbish behind.
Some younger preachers today have made the mistake of destroying the old foundation instead of just removing the rubbish and building on that old foundation. It’s still a good foundation. You don’t have to run after these boys that are seeking a new foundation. It won’t hold anything up.
Independent Fundamental Baptists have seen some days of glory, and there are still some of those days ahead. God wants to put something in your heart. He wants to use and bless your life to do His work and His will. Can God put something in your heart to do for His glory? “This is what I want you to do: I want you to preach My Word.” God put something in my heart back then. Can He put something in yours?
I want you to notice that phrase in verse 12 – “...neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart…” I want to speak to you this morning on this subject: “In Search Of A Heart.”
Please bear with me for about five minutes as I testify a little bit. It was June of 1976 somewhere outside of Jacksonville, Florida, in a church service on a Sunday evening. The boys’ ranch where I was staying at the time traveled and raised support for the ministry. It was a faith based-ministry. The man who ran it had been saved at the Lighthouse down in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Brother Roloff sent him off to Tennessee Temple. He went through Bible College there for four years and graduated. When he graduated, he went north of Chattanooga and bought fifty-five acres of property on a mountain. Walden’s Ridge. Some of you might remember Mike Crane and Fort Bluff, Judo and Karate for Christ. That’s an old-time ministry, but Mike had his camp up on that same ridge.
That’s where the boys’ home was that he started, a ranch for troubled young men. I had been saved while there at the ranch nine months earlier in October of 1975. I was just excited to be a born again Christian, thrilled to be a child of God. I was set free from all the load of sin, and some of you know that feeling. What a joy!
I remember very well that night in 1976. We had been at a different church for the morning service, and we drove through the afternoon to a church outside of Jacksonville. That church had something similar to what was very popular in Southern Baptist churches at the time called BTU: Baptist Training Union. It was like a Sunday School, but it wasn’t broken down into as many grade levels. It lasted for about maybe 45 minutes before the evening service, and it was very common back in those days. That night, they had a combined service; they had the children come in and the teens, and all of the adults, because one of their boys was home from his freshman year of Bible college, and the pastor had that young man preach. You’re talking about probably a nineteen year old young man preaching to his home church.
I was sitting on the front row because that’s where I always sat. I was in my normal church mode. I will say that my normal church mode was not, “I sure hope this gets over soon.” No, my normal church mode was, “I can’t wait til the preaching starts! I’m ready! God, please speak to me. What can I learn today? What’s the man of God going to say?” I’m not making that up. That’s what was in me.
It was like when Peter said, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (I Peter 2:2-3) I had tasted of God’s grace, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I was always hungry for more. So I was sitting in that service, and while that young man was preaching away, it seemed like I lost all awareness of everything that was going on around me. It was like I was sitting by myself in that auditorium, and it was just me and that young man, one on one. While he was preaching, God was saying to my heart, “That is what I want you to do. I want you to preach.” And immediately I put up my arguments about why I couldn’t.
That young man finished his message and the pastor dismissed the crowd. We had about 15 minutes before the main service started, so I went and found an empty room in the building and closed the door and got on my knees. I said, “God, I can’t do that; but if you want me to, I’ll obey you. I’ll do what you say.” I asked Him to confirm what He wanted me to do from the Bible, and I can still take you to the verse that was preached on in the service that night.
On Wednesday night, we went back to the ranch, and our pastor was out of town. We had a guest speaker, and it was a nasty night because it had been raining. To be honest with you, I don’t remember the guest speaker being very interesting; but he got up to read his text, and this is what he read: “Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.” Then he read verse 20: “And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.” (I Chronicles 28:10, 20)
I know what that context is; I know it’s about a Temple building. But can you see how God used those verses? I had just prayed three days earlier, “God, please confirm the call from the scripture.” And He did. I knew it in my heart and soul. And that night, I went forward and surrendered my life to preach. It’s really special when God puts something in your heart.
In verse number 12 in our text in Nehemiah, he testified that God had put something in his heart for him to do in the city of Jerusalem. After a long journey from Shushan to Jerusalem, Nehemiah rose up in the middle of the night, and he began to ride around the walls of that city. As he did, there was something that was burning in his heart that God had put there. Something that needed to be done for the welfare of the people of that great city. God wanted him to rebuild the walls and the gates. They had been burned and destroyed by the Babylonian army. The city was a sitting duck; there was no defense to keep enemies out.
And that is what God put in Nehemiah’s heart to do for the welfare of the people of that city. God wanted him to rebuild the wall and the gates. This was not a personal dream. It was not some kind of self-imagined, self-centered plan to establish some kind of an empire or promote himself. This was something that God had put in his heart. And I believe that God is still in the business of putting things in the hearts of people to do for Him, for His cause, for His glory, for His Gospel in this day.
God is still putting on hearts that kind of calling to do His work and His will. God’s work is not done! Listen young people! There may be less people interested in God’s work, but God is still interested in God’s work. And God is still seeking for people whose hearts are available for Him to put something into their hearts for the welfare of others. I want to make some observations about this today for us who are living in this day and age.
They had seen some glory days in the past.
First of all, I want us to know that Israel had seen days of glory in the past. If I read the Bible correctly and understand Israel’s history, she reached what we might call her peak of glory, her zenith, under King Solomon. Now, David was a great king, and God did wonderful things for Israel under David’s leadership; but things got even better for a while under Solomon’s reign. The Temple was built, and what a magnificent building it was! There was so much gold in Jerusalem at that time that silver was practically obsolete. It was no big deal. Silver was kind of like a penny, basically nothing. That’s how much gold there was!
The queen of Sheba came up from the south to see all of it, and all she can do is walk around with her mouth hanging open! Solomon got through showing her around, and he said, “What do you think?”
She said, “What do I think? I’ve heard so much about this place, that I didn’t think it could really be true. And yet, now that I see it with my own eyes, I’m finding out that the half of it has not been told to me!” The wealth and the influence, and the might and the blessings of God on Jerusalem at that time were without measure.
According to Jeremiah, the kingdom wore a crown of all the nations. But things had gone downhill. Solomon’s end was a complete failure. Under his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom split, and it was a downward spiral from there. The Northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity, and the Southern Kingdom fell into Babylonian captivity. Later on, Jeremiah would write Lamentations 5:16: “The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!” And no doubt, inhabitants of Israel and Jerusalem would talk and reminisce about the glory days; kind of like some of us do about Independent Baptist Fundamentalism. We talk sometimes about the past, and there were days of glory in the Independent Baptist world in years gone by.
I left that boys’ home in August of 1976 to prepare to go off to Bible college. When I got to my home down in Atlanta, I found out that John R. Rice was hosting the Sword of the Lord conference in Atlanta. There were some good sized churches in Atlanta in those days. There was Dr. Curtis Hutson’s church in Decatur, Forest Hills Baptist Church. People’s Baptist Church, Charles Wright had a pretty good sized work. There were some good sized churches around the Atlanta, Georgia area; but there was not an auditorium in or near Atlanta large enough to hold the crowds that came to those meetings. They had to put them in the Atlanta Civic Center, a massive place. It was jammed! Those types of venues were needed to hold the crowds that came to those preaching meetings. They had done the same thing in Detroit and Indianapolis! They had to go to, if you’ll put it this way, secular venues to hold the crowd of Independent Baptists that were going to come to a meeting!
I’m just being honest! There was a day when the largest church in almost every state was an Independent Baptist church. Some of you remember that. Most of those churches had thriving schools, people were being reached with the Gospel, converts were being baptized, missionaries were being sent out, buildings were being built, schools were being started, conferences were being packed out. It was nothing for churches to load up a couple of buses with their members and drive an hour or two to go to preaching meetings!
You know, maybe things today aren’t exactly what they were in years gone by. The crowds at special meetings are not quite as large. I don’t know of anybody in our camp of Independent Fundamental Baptists that hosts a meeting that has to be held in a secular venue. Maybe the big days aren’t quite as big. Maybe our churches aren’t quite as large.
I asked an evangelist recently who preached for us, “What is the average size of a church that you preach in in America?”
He said, “The average is 75 to 125.”
Maybe things aren’t quite as big and awe-striking. Kind of like the nation of Israel after the captivity. To some, the new Temple was definitely not as grand as the old Temple; but God still had something that He wanted done for that new Temple, and thank the Lord, He found a man with a heart that He could put something into to do something for that city! That man was serving as the king’s cupbearer when God began to work in His heart.
Friend, God still puts things in the heart of people to do for Him today. Nehemiah did not stop to consider that the new Temple would not be what the old Temple had been. He did not stop to think about the fact that it would not be as magnificent or as grand. He just knew that his heart was burning deep within him. There was something that God had put in his heart for him to do, and he was eaten up to get it done! God is still looking for that same kind of heart.
Do you remember the parable of the householder who went out to hire laborers for his vineyard? He went out at six o’clock in the morning and hired some guys to work in his vineyard, and he came back at nine o’clock in the morning and hired more; he came back at noon and hired more. He came back at 3:00 p.m. and hired more; then he came back at 5:00 p.m.! There was only one hour left in the workday.
Now folks, think about that: these other labourers had been working in the vineyard for eleven hours, and there was only one hour left in the work day, but that did not matter to the householder! There was still daylight left, and there was still a harvest!
Maybe there wasn’t as much harvest left to gather as there had been at the beginning of the day, but he didn’t say, “Well, we got most of it in, so let’s just take off the last hour.” No! Here’s what he said: “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” And they said, “Because no man hath hired us.” Then he said, “Go ye also into the vineyard.” Young men and young ladies, no matter how large the man’s vineyard was, there obviously was less to harvest than there had been at the beginning of the day because the people had been working there for eleven hours! But it didn’t matter to him. There was still daylight left. There was still something to do.
We talk about being in the last days. We talk about this being the end, and that we think we’re close to the Rapture. I believe all of that is true; but guess what? If there’s only thirty minutes of daylight left, the Householder is still looking for labourers! The Householder is looking for some man who He can put something in his heart to do for God and for the welfare of the people. God still wants to put something in the heart of His people to do for His cause.
There were still some glory days coming in the future.
The people of Israel had seen days of glory in the past; but let me say secondly that Israel still had some days of glory to come in the future. When God put something in the heart of Nehemiah, the glory days of the nation of Israel under David and Solomon were behind them. But I want to tell you something: they still had some really good days ahead of them, too.
That Temple and those walls stood until about 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed it, which means that that building lasted approximately 600 years before it was destroyed. It stood for several hundred years. It wasn’t as magnificent or jaw dropping as the first temple, but for several hundred years it functioned. Sacrifices were offered, songs were sung, the scriptures were read in that building. It may not have been as magnificent, but it was still effective. It was still useful. It was still very much needed, and God blessed it for a long time.
Folks, God still has a work to do, and He is still looking for people into whose hearts He can put something for them to do for Him. Young people, listen: it matters not how big or little the work becomes. How popular or how well-known…those are not the things that matter. What matters is that there will always be the welfare of some people to seek. There will always be people that need help!
Now, this is just speculation, but I would imagine that the people living in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day were really happy to have a wall built around their city. I imagine that they were happy and grateful. Why? Because they felt safe and secure. I don’t think they walked around and said, “Shoot, this thing ain’t half of what the other one was.” They weren’t negative and discouraged about the wall. They weren’t comparing the wall that Nehemiah had built to the former walls. Many of them had never even seen the former walls!
“Well, you know, things in fundamental Baptist churches aren’t what they used to be.” We need to stop that kind of talk! I’m as guilty of it as anybody, but people who get saved and helped and influenced today are very thankful and blessed! They aren’t weeping because things aren’t like they used to be. They have no idea of what those things used to be! They’re just happy to be saved, and to get to go to church, and sing, and pray, and fellowship, and hear God’s Word preached and have their hearts helped. These new converts are not moaning and groaning about missing the old days, because they don’t have any idea what the old days were like! They’re as happy as they can be.
By the way, who is to say that those days in Israel didn’t end up being even more glorious than Solomon’s days? Because about 550 years after this took place, there was a young couple that walked through those same gates and that wall that had been rebuilt, and they carried a little eight day old baby boy in their arms. They were doing what the Jewish law required: they were coming to present Him to the priest. He was an unusual boy. The woman carrying Him was His mother, but that man with His mother was not His father. It was Mary carrying Jesus, God the Son, through those rebuilt walls to that rebuilt Temple. That first Temple had only seen pictures and types of Jesus. This second Temple had Jesus Himself come to it! So you tell me which Temple was really more magnificent.
What’s more glorious? The picture, or the person? Can you imagine a mother with a boy in years gone by in the middle of World War II; and when he left to go fight, she took his picture and put it in a very prominent place there in the house, and every day, she looked at that picture and longed for her son to return. The day finally came where she was in the house, and there was a knock on the door. She ran and opened it up, and her boy was standing there on the porch. Do you think that she went, “Oh my!” And then she ran and grabbed that picture and kissed it and jumped and danced around the house? You think that’s what she did? No! Forget the picture! The real person is here! That old Temple had only seen the picture of Jesus through the sacrifices and offerings. In the new Temple, the person of Christ Himself was there.
Can God put something in your heart?
Israel had seen days of glory in the past, they still had some days of glory to come in the future, and my third point is just a question: Can God put something in your heart?
You know, Nehemiah was just going about his day as a cupbearer for the king when God put something in his heart. Nehemiah had his job, his life, his income, his routine, his comfort zone. But he heard a report about his homeland, and the homeland was in trouble. He wasn’t a man that was so concerned with what he was doing and the plans he had that there was no room for God to put something in his heart.
Can God put something in your heart, young people? It concerns me sometimes. There’s this concept among young people in school that you’ve got to get your own plans made, and you’ve got to get your goals for your life. I’m not against goals and plans! But amidst all of that, there needs to be a little room where God can put something in there, place something in your heart, and change the whole thing.
Is there room in your heart for God to put something in there? Is there a place for God to put His burden, His desire, His vision for your life? Or is it only about your vision, your desire, and your burden? I’m sure there were many uncertainties when God put this burden in Nehemiah’s heart. I’m sure he had many questions, and you might have questions too! But when God puts something in your heart, He works out all the details!
When God put that call to preach in my heart, I talked to someone and said, “What do I do now?”
They said, “Go to Bible college and sit under Dr. Jack Hyles.” I didn’t know anybody in Hammond! It was a pretty good-sized place. I knew absolutely nobody! You kind of like to go places with somebody you know! I didn’t have any money. I had a car that was worth $4,500 dollars. I called my dad and said, “Would you sell the car for me? God has put something in my heart.” That’s how I paid for my first semester at Bible college. Some people won’t go to college because they don’t have a car; I had one and sold it so I could go. It’s called abandonment. I’m not bragging, I’m just telling you what happened.
How was Nehemiah going to get from Shushan to Jerusalem? How was he going to get everything done? I’m sure there were tons of questions, but when God puts something in your heart, He works out all the details! He’s looking for that complete abandonment to His vision, His burden, and His will!
Don’t you know that God worked through King Ahasuerus himself to help Nehemiah! “King, I need some time off.”
“Where are you going?”
“I need to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall over there.”
“Well, sure, I’ll give you some time off. Be sure to come back.” And God raised up others to catch the vision and help him when he got to Jerusalem.
Folks, you don’t need to know everything for the next 20 years before you surrender and start obeying and start following God’s call! All God needs from you is enough space in your heart to put something in there that He wants you to do for Him! That’s all He needs! Can God put something in your heart?
I want to say just a word of precaution to the young and to the old in this room: for those of us who are older, we need to be careful that we don’t have a mindset that there are no days of glory ahead. “Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)
My heart is greatly encouraged by the number of young men who are assuming pastorates of churches. Young men who are squared away. Young men in their late thirties and early forties – and yes, that’s young – who are squared away and settled on the King James Bible, settled on their music, their standards and convictions. Young men who are settled on the old-time religion and glorifying and serving the God of Heaven who says, “For I am the Lord, I change not...” (Malachi 3:6) And when you go to their churches, sometimes there’s an excitement and energy there. So don’t assume that the glory days of the past will never be repeated and that there are no glory days in the future. These young men need to be encouraged to do what God has put in their heart to do.
For those who are younger: if God puts something in your heart to do for Him and for the welfare of others, then be careful that you don’t remove the foundation of the old Temple. The first wall was built on a good foundation. How do we know that? Because when Nehemiah got there, he did not bust that foundation all to pieces and start with something new. You know what he did? He removed the rubbish, and rebuilt on that old, solid foundation that had held those walls up for 400 years.
I’m gonna say something…I hate to say it, but it’s true: Every generation of Independent Fundamental Baptists leaves some rubbish behind. We do! The generation that was before us left some rubbish behind, and so did the generation before them. And when we’re all gone, no matter how much we’ve sincerely tried to do right and glorify and serve God, we are humans and sinners, and it’s certain that we’re going to leave some rubbish behind.
Some younger preachers today have made the mistake of destroying the old foundation instead of just removing the rubbish and building on that old foundation. It’s still a good foundation. You don’t have to run after these boys that are seeking a new foundation. It won’t hold anything up.
Independent Fundamental Baptists have seen some days of glory, and there are still some of those days ahead. God wants to put something in your heart. He wants to use and bless your life to do His work and His will. Can God put something in your heart to do for His glory? “This is what I want you to do: I want you to preach My Word.” God put something in my heart back then. Can He put something in yours?
