Table of Contents
Date: SUN 11:30am 28th December 2025
Preacher: Rev. David McLaughlin
Bible Reference: Nehemiah 6:15
So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.
Podcast
Sermon Summary
(Text: Nehemiah 6:15 – “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days”)
Delivered on the last Lord’s Day of 2025 (28 December 2025), this sermon uses the completion of Jerusalem’s wall under Nehemiah as a timely exhortation to reflect on the ending year and to enter 2026 with renewed commitment to faithful, persevering obedience unto the end.
Context and Setting
- The preacher explains that this stand-alone message closes 2025 before resuming studies in 1 Thessalonians in the new year.
- 2026 will mark the 50th anniversary of the children’s ministry in the congregation (starting February 1976) and the 75th anniversary of the Free Presbyterian denomination.
- The reading (Nehemiah 6:1–16, KJV) describes the final opposition faced by Nehemiah and the remarkable completion of the wall in just 52 days.
Main Theme
God is a God who finishes what He begins (Philippians 1:6). He therefore calls His people to a life of persevering obedience – not merely starting well or serving in moments of enthusiasm, but faithfully continuing to the end. The simple statement “So the wall was finished” carries profound encouragement for God’s people at the turn of the year.
Three Key Points
- The Priority of a Finished Work
- For 13 years after the temple was rebuilt, Jerusalem’s broken walls lay in rubble – a visible symbol of disgrace, vulnerability, lack of vision, and reproach from enemies.
- When Nehemiah arrived with burden and vision, fierce opposition immediately arose. The preacher identifies four satanic schemes in the chapter:
- Intrigue (vv. 1–4): repeated invitations to a compromising meeting in the plain of Ono.
- Innuendo (vv. 5–9): false accusations of rebellion sent in an open letter.
- Intimidation (vv. 10–14): a hired false prophet urging Nehemiah to hide in the temple out of fear.
- Infiltration (implied in the broader context): internal subversion.
- Nehemiah’s resolute response: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” His overriding priority was to finish the task God had given him.
- Application: Our chief priority must be the glory of God through knowing, serving, and trusting Christ. Nothing must be allowed to distract or pull us away. The preacher urges prayer for leaders, warning that Satan targets them to damage the flock.
- The Perseverance Required for a Finished Work
- Faithful service is not measured by ease or perfect circumstances but by steady obedience until God declares the task complete.
- Opposition, trials, weariness, fear, and lack of vision do not mean God has abandoned the work – they mean the devil is trying to stop it.
- Nehemiah and the people laboured daily (trowel in one hand, sword in the other) for 52 days until the last stone was laid.
- The preacher corrects a former view: God calls us not only to faithfulness but also to spiritual success. Scripture promises prosperity and triumph to those who meditate on and obey God’s Word (Joshua 1:8; Isaiah 55:11; 2 Corinthians 2:14).
- Objectives for the church and individuals in 2026 include: souls saved, children’s ministry restored, numerical and spiritual growth, deeper prayer and Bible knowledge, greater holiness, and material advancement of the work – all by God’s strength and in unity.
- The Picture of a Finished Work
- The completed wall points ultimately to the far greater finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- In John 17:4 Jesus declared, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”
- Christ’s work of redemption was sacrificial (His own blood), sufficient (once for all), successful, and satisfying to the Father (proved by the resurrection and ascension).
- Because Christ’s work is finished, believers have peace with God, full forgiveness, adoption into God’s family, and the indwelling Spirit – all by grace, not by earning God’s favour.
Closing Appeal
As 2025 closes and 2026 dawns, believers are urged to:
- Reflect honestly on the year past – what was accomplished for God, what remains unfinished.
- Resolve afresh to prioritise God’s glory, persevere through opposition and weariness, and rest wholly on Christ’s finished work.
- Aim to be both faithful and successful in the place God has set them – praying when they don’t feel like it, attending the house of God even in difficulty, and trusting the God who finishes what He begins.
