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0:20 Woodstock, Virginia, January 1776. 0:24 A small frontier church sits at the bend of the Shenandoah Valley. 0:27 There's no soft chairs, there's no heat, but the building is packed past capacity with farmers, backwoodsmen, and their families because the pastor is said to be delivering his farewell sermon. 0:40 The pastor is only 30 years old. 0:42 He is Anglican and Lutheran both because holding a Virginia parish in that day required ordination in each. 0:48 He has shepherded this congregation for five years. 0:52 He's baptized their children, he's buried their dead. 0:55 His name is John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg. 0:58 So he climbs to the pulpit in the same black preaching gown he's worn every Sunday since taking the congregation on. 1:05 He opens his Bible to Ecclesiastes 3. 1:09 For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. 1:14 So he works his way down through the passage, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plan, a time to break down, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. 1:23 Then he arrives at verse 8. 1:25 A time for war and a time for peace. 1:30 And then he closes the Bible. 1:33 There is a time for all things, he tells them, including a time to preach and a time to pray. 1:39 And then he says that those times have passed away. 1:43 There is a time to fight, and that time is now. 1:47 Then he bows his head, he delivers the benediction, and dismisses the congregation just as he had done every Sunday of his tenure. 1:55 Except this time, instead of greeting them at the door on their way out, he stays at the pulpit, removes his black robe, and underneath is a full dress uniform of a colonel in the Continental Army. 2:09 Now, let's be straight about the history here because I don't want to, you know, land in you know the fairy tale territory. 2:14 This story comes from an 1849 biography written by Muhlenberg's great nephew. 2:19 This was 73 years after it happened, so some of the details may have grown in the telling, but we know for certain that Continental Army surgeon James Thatcher wrote this in his own diary in 1778, that this man entered his pulpit wearing his sword, preached a farewell sermon, and marched the next day at the head of his 2:41 regiment to join the army. 2:43 So here's what we know for sure. 2:44 The uniform under Muhlenberg's robe was real. 2:47 His march the next morning was real. 2:50 He led 300 men from the country, many of them his own congregants that joined that day to form the 8th Virginia Regiment. 2:59 He fought at Charleston, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. 3:03 And he commanded a brigade in the first line at Yorktown and left the military a major general. 3:09 So he was among the first of what the British dubbed the Black Regiment. 3:14 So this is what modern scholars called the Black Robed Regiment. 3:18 So these are the courageous, patriotic American clergymen who fought Britain during the founding era. 3:24 The British themselves actually blamed the Black Robed Regiment as a chief reason America won her independence. 3:31 And we're going to spend our time this week looking at the lives of five of these great men of God. 3:36 So this man was actually offered his pulpit back in 1783, but he declined. 3:41 He instead served in America's first Congress, and he actually died as a United States senator. 3:46 But guys, don't miss this. 3:48 One man took off his robe, and 300 men followed him to take the fight to an existential enemy. 3:55 Now turn with me to one of my favorite chapters in one of my favorite Old Testament books, Nehemiah, and we're going to be in chapter four. 4:02 Now, before this chapter, Nehemiah's job was cut bearer to the king of Persia. 4:06 This is a very important post, but one that kind of kept him out of the fray, you know, I mean, but it kept him close to tremendous amounts of power. 4:13 But he decided to throw all that away to stand atop a pile of rubble that used to be the walls of Jerusalem. 4:20 Now, as the walls rise, Nehemiah's enemies start to appear. 4:23 So we have Sanbalat and Tobiah, we have the Arabs, the Ammonites, the Ashdodites, and they're all conspiring against the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. 4:31 But what did Nehemiah do? 4:34 He just kept building. 4:35 But he also stood ready to fight. 4:38 Let's go to Nehemiah 4, we're going to start in verse 16. 4:41 From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. 4:48 And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah who were building on the wall. 4:52 Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. 4:59 And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. 5:03 So a working tool in one hand and a fighting tool in the other. 5:07 Now from Nehemiah, there were no phases, right? 5:09 It wasn't like, okay, here's the construction phase, and then that's going to eventually morph into the combat phase. 5:14 Nope. 5:15 He never traded the role of builder for the role of soldier or vice versa. 5:19 He had one calling, two hands, ready for anything, and so were all the men that were working. 5:24 Now, Molenberg is Nehemiah with the order reversed, right? 5:28 So the robe is over the uniform, but under the you know trappings of a pastor, the clothing of a soldier ready to bleed. 5:36 Right? 5:37 So it's the same man, same call, two hands, one purpose. 5:41 Now here's my question for you this morning. 5:44 Which hand have you dropped? 5:47 So most men will drop one. 5:49 Like some are all work and no fight, and others are all fight and no work. 5:52 Nehemiah's lesson is that we're called to both, ready to do both at the same time. 5:58 I mean, too many so-called Christian men in modern society, especially in America, are uncomfortable with work and supremely uncomfortable with fighting. 6:06 But God calls us to work, and God may certainly call us to fight at some point. 6:11 And some people mix up, you know, the Bible's early timeline and assume that work is a result of the fall in Genesis 3, but in reality, work pre-existed the fall of Adam in original sin. 6:21 God calls us to work. 6:23 And Scripture is replete with examples of God calling men to fight, just as history is replete with righteous men called to fight righteously for righteous causes. 6:33 So in a world where we don't rise to the occasion but fall to the level of our training, do you stand ready to fight if God calls you to it? 6:42 Chew on that today.