Nehemiah: Rebuilding the Walls With a Sword and a Trowel Part 6 Pastor Charles Price

Transcription

1 Nehemiah: Rebuilding the Walls With a Sword and a Trowel Part 6 Pastor Charles Price If you have your Bible with you I am going to read to you from Nehemiah Chapter 4. And then I am going to read from Nehemiah Chapter 6. We have for several weeks been looking into this book of Nehemiah and the story of Nehemiah returning from Susa, the capital of Persia, with a vision and a burden given him by God to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem, which had been in disarray for 140 years since the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem. And he is coming back in order that the name of God may once again be seen and known in this city. And there are many parallels from that story of the fact that we are all called to participate in the work of God, wherever that is and in whatever way that is. And this teaches us some very important principles and truths about that. And I am going to read from Nehemiah 4:6. Nehemiah is writing this himself. He says, So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall. Also our enemies said, Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work. Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, Wherever you turn, they will attack us. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

2 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, Don t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work. From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at this side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. And I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us! And then over to Chapter 6 and Verse 1: When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you? Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aid to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written: Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

3 It is reported among the nations and Geshsem says it is true that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: There is a king in Judah! Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together. I sent him this reply: Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head. They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed. But I prayed, Now strengthen my hands. And down to Verses 15 and 16: So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. Nobody likes a fight and when we find ourselves in one, as we invariably will from time to time, the big question is what do we do? Do we just turn the other cheek? Is that the definitive statement on dealing with people who oppose you? Do we love our enemies and that s it that s the answer to everything? Do we simply forgive them and move on? I once met an Irish preacher who had been a boxer, professional boxer, and was later converted, and he became an evangelist. And he used to travel around Ireland and Britain with a tent that he would stick up in a little community and people would come to meetings that he would have there. And he would preach the gospel to them. And I remember him talking about going to one town in Ireland a small town. And he and some others were putting up this tent and some curious folks from the village came out and began to mock them and to insult them. And then at one point one of these brash Irish young men came up to this evangelist and he clenched his fist, pulled it back and thumped him right on the side of the face. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

4 So this preacher looked at him and then he turned the other cheek, thinking that would solve the problem. And this Iris guy pulled back his fist and he thumped him again on the other cheek. At the point this ex-boxer preacher took his jacket off and said, The Lord gave me no further instructions after that. Pow! And he beat him up. Well what do we do when we meet people who oppose us? Nehemiah is facing enormous opposition at this point. He is in Jerusalem to build these city walls. And in the process he runs quickly very quickly, but smack into opposition, led by a ringleader called Sanballat and his sidekick Tobiah and then others who joined with them. And they are constant thorns in Nehemiah s flesh. And in Chapter 4 and Verse 7 there is a whole alliance of opposers who come together then. It talks about Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod. That is a formidable coalition because I think I pointed out last time we met this group that Sanballat was from the north (he was one of the Samaritans). Tobiah and the Ammonites were on the east. Geshem and the Arabs were in the south. And the men of Ashdod (which was the capital of the Philistines) were on the west. So they were surrounded north, south, east and west by people who are hostile to what s going on. And then this merry band is added to in Chapter 6 Verse 14 by the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me. And these were people from within the people of Judah, from within the city of Jerusalem. So not only is there opposition outside north, south, east and west but from within the people of God there was also opposition to the work that God had given Nehemiah to do. This is tough stuff to have to live with. Opposition ought not to take us by surprise. It is not new. And there is never any work for God that does not take place in an environment that will include hostility in one way or another. Jesus promised it. The New Testament talks about it. History proves it. And we looked at the methods of attack that they used last week where verbally they attacked them with ridicule and derision. And then violently they attacked them and threatened to kill them and destroy them. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

5 And then from within their own community, they were attacked by discouragement where people said to them, We are never going to do this. These enemies are going to keep coming against us until they have suppressed and destroyed this work. We are not going to be able to deal with it. And the people got discouraged. That is sometimes one of the hardest things to deal with when you are in a battle. Now the nature of some of this opposition tells us something about the people who are opposing them. You know Sanballat, who is the ringleader, is probably more disturbed that he would admit to being. And in Verse 1 of Chapter 4 it says, When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. Why did he become angry? What is the source of that in Sanballat? And then in Verse 7 it says, When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. So, once again anger. You know our emotions say more about us than we care to admit sometimes. What is anger? Well anger is an emotional response to blocked goals. When you have goals, objectives, that you want to accomplish and something blocks you, the response is anger. You see it in a child. When a child often doesn t get what it wants, the temptation is to be angry. Sanballat and these friends of his respond in anger. What is that telling us about them? Well in Verse 1 it says that, When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the walls, he became angry. So, the rebuilding of the walls itself provokes him to anger. And then in Verse 7 when he and his friends heard that the repairs to Jerusalem s walls had gone ahead and the gaps were being closed, they were angry. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

6 So here it is all about the repairing and the building of the wall. But why would that make them angry? Why isn t that actually a convenient thing for them because they too are residents in this area (though some of them were from outside)? Well we know enough about Sanballat to get some idea. And later in Chapter 13 and Verse 28, it tells us there that his daughter had married the grandson of the high priest Eliashib in Jerusalem. That means that his daughter has married into the aristocracy of Jerusalem and it is these people the priests, the aristocracy of Jerusalem who are the people who should have been building the walls, who should have had a vision for restoring the city without Nehemiah having to come all these miles from Susa to do what the aristocracy of the city itself should have initiated and been doing. And so Nehemiah s action here exposes the lack of vision, the lack of action, the lack of leadership among the people who should have known better and been doing this job themselves. You know there is little that makes a person angry more than when they have failed to obey God in something that He has given them to do, and someone else comes along who does obey God, who does trust God, especially if they are from outside the inner circle, as Nehemiah was, and especially if they are younger, like Nehemiah was. And those who should have been doing the job themselves but failed to act; they hate it. You remember the story of David killing Goliath. Remember how that came about? The Israelites and the Philistines were fighting on either side of the Valley of Elah (you can read it in 1 Samuel 17). And one day one of the Philistines stepped out from his camp and he shouted across the valley, Instead of all you people fighting all of us every day, and having to patch up the wounded and bury the dead every night, why don t we have one person from your side fight one person from our side? I don t know why but Saul, the king of Israel at the time, accepted the challenge. And this Philistine said, I am fighting for the Philistines. Who is fighting for you? His name was Goliath and he was a giant. Now the NIV, which I have, says he was 9 feet tall. There is some ambiguity over that measurement and some translations put him at 6 foot 5, which still would have been tall in those days. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

7 It is interesting he is in the Guinness Book of Records in the margin and it says, Goliath of Gath was purported to be 9 feet tall but his height cannot be verified. So that s why he is relegated to the margin. But however, whether he is 9 foot or 6 foot 5, in comparison, he was taller than the rest. He was seen as a giant. And he shouts across the valley, I am fighting for the Philistines; who is fighting for you? And the obvious person to fight for Israel was Saul for two reasons: number one, he is described as being head and shoulders above everybody else. So he at least could look Goliath in the navel I guess. He was the biggest man they had and not only that, God had made a promise to Saul when he became king and it was this: You will deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Well, here is a perfect opportunity to do so. If Saul was willing to obey and trust God (because God had already said that to him), here was the golden opportunity. But he wasn t, he was a coward. And so he looked for a volunteer there weren t any. He tried to persuade people. He said, If you will go and fight Goliath, I will give you great wealth. Well that may have sounded attractive until you realized what happens if I lose? What do I do with my wealth? I can have a fancy funeral I guess, but that isn t most people s idea of living. And then he said, Not only will you have great wealth; you can have my daughter in marriage. Well we don t know what kind of prospect that was, but nobody took it up. And then he said, Not only will you have great wealth and my daughter in marriage but your whole family will be tax-free for the rest of their lives. And I imagine there were families who got hold of the weed in the family and said, Hey, you go and fight him because at least we will be tax-free. But nobody went. And then David came - after 40 days of this David came to bring bread and cheese and barley to his brothers who were fighting. And when he got to them, he said, Why aren t you fighting today? And they said, Well there s a problem. What s the problem? Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

8 Well there is a challenge from the other side, a man called Goliath. And they told him the story. And he said, But, isn t God on our side? And they said, David, don t be so spiritual, man; this is a real battle; you have got to fight this thing properly. And they kicked him out, told him to go home. He didn t go home. He went down to Saul and knocked on Saul s tent (if you knock on a tent) and David knew Saul, because you see, every once in a while Saul would get all uptight and David would come and play his harp and it soothed him. And so David, as a young man, already had some connection with Saul. And he said to Saul, Why aren t you fighting? Well there is a challenge. Yeah, I heard about that from my brother, but isn t God on our side? Well, David it is wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the young, but you ll get over it, you will mature. And David said, If you won t go, if nobody else will go, I will go. Saul said, But you are just a boy. He s been a fighting man since his youth. You don t have any uniform. He said, I am going to go in the name of the God who delivered me from a lion and delivered me from a bear when I was out with my sheep and they came and attacked my sheep and God gave me victory over the lion and God gave me victory over the bear, and God will give me victory over this giant. You remember David went to meet him with nothing but a sling and five stones? And Goliath thought he was being mocked. He said, Is this a kid s game? What are you doing? And David said, I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of heaven and earth and this day He will give you into our hands. And he took a stone, you remember, slung it, and the stone went right into Goliath s head. He didn t die but he got concussed, fell over, and David went up, and it says he took Goliath s own sword and he killed him, chopped off his head. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

9 The Philistine army began to run away. The Israelite army began to chase them and they thoroughly defeated them. And David had brought about victory for the whole nation of Israel. Now that s the story that you know. How do you think Saul was after that victory? Do you think Saul said, This is fantastic! This is incredible! David, thank you so much. You have got us off the hook fantastic! Do you think Saul would say that? Well you don t understand human nature if you think that. Because in 1 Samuel 18:8 it says, Saul was very angry. Why? Because David had done what Saul himself had refused to do. And he is a teenaged boy and Saul is the king. Now they were singing a song, which said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. That didn t help Saul s anger. But in Chapter 18 in 1 Samuel and Verse 8, Verse 9: In Verse 15: In Verse 29: Saul was very angry. From that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. Saul was afraid of David and wanted to get rid of him. Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days. And in Chapter 19:11, Saul sent men to David s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. This is the guy who got them off the hook. And the king, who face has been saved by David s action, is angry, is bitter, is intent on destroying him, is afraid, and within a very short time sets out to kill him. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

10 And as you probably know from the story, David was a fugitive then probably for 20 years or more, on the run from Saul because Saul was intent on destroying him. You see our emotions say a lot about us. Anger says that Nehemiah has come into the scene to do something that the aristocracy of Jerusalem into whom Sanballat s family has now married, should have been doing. If love is blind, so is anger. By the way, as an aside, if you start to get angry over something, ask yourself why. What is being blocked here for me? What is exposing me in this situation? Now there is a righteous anger of course. And Paul wrote in Ephesians, you know, In your anger do not sin. There is an anger that is right, but this is not a righteous anger; this is an unrighteous anger expressed verbally and violently against the purposes of God and the people of God, by a man who should have been part of the solution. And then he brings all his other comrades in with him. And because he wasn t part of the solution, he became the enemy. If you do not work with God, you will work against God. You will not be neutral on the side. Now how does Nehemiah deal with this and the people that he is leading? Well, I want to give you three things. And I suggest these three things are valuable things for us to know whatever situation of difficulty of conflict that you may be in, that I may be in. The first thing they did in response to this is they prayed to God. You find in Chapter 4 Verse 4, after the ridicule that was being heaped on them, they said, Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Chapter 4 Verse 9: But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. I just read you those two verses. Whatever else is true for Nehemiah, he was a man of prayer. Take the book of Nehemiah sometime and just go through it and Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

11 mark every time Nehemiah prays. And you will discover that he is a man of prayer. In Chapter 1 he prays. In Chapter 2 he prays. In Chapter 4 he prays twice in Chapter 4. In Chapter 6 he prays. In Chapter 9 he prays. In Chapter 13 (in fact Chapter 9 is all about prayer) in Chapter 13 he prays four times. Now what does that mean? Why does he pray? Why do we pray to God? Is this a way to get some action from God? In other words, is praying sort of getting together and ganging up on God to make sure that He does something? You know, is that what our prayer is? If there is enough volume, there is enough intensity, there is enough urgency, if you have got enough people doing it, you will manage somehow to put pressure on God and you will get some response. You know sometimes you talk to people and they seem to think prayer is something like that. But no, that isn t what prayer does, trying to persuade a reluctant God with enough volume and enough numbers to get Him to do something. Prayer is very simple. What it means is they passed the buck to God. They related the situation to God. The battle is against them and they took the battle and they gave it to God. Prayer is simply expressing dependence on God and giving the situation to Him. Let me read you a verse in Philippians 4:6,7 when Paul says there, Do not be anxious about anything Now that s an unrealistic thing to say, isn t it? Do not be anxious about anything, but There s that big little word but in the situation that would normally make you anxious, instead of anxiety but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

12 Let me ask you a question. What is causing you anxiety right at this moment? What is it in your life, maybe your personal life, maybe in your family? What is causing you anxiety? In your workplace what is causing you anxiety? In your church involvement what is causing you anxiety? Well, what Paul says here and this is what Nehemiah was doing what Paul says here is in the things that cause you anxious, everything, present it to God by prayer and petition. That doesn t just mean pray about it; it means give it to God. Because it is possible to pray about things but never give them to God. You pray about it but you still carry it as though it is yours. You haven t given it to God at all. I meet people, I talk to people, I pray with people who prayed about something a thousand times and they are still carrying it as their burden and their anxiety. How do you know when you have given it to God? Well he says, present it to God by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Not thanking Him for the problem, but you have given it to Him and you now have a perspective that says, Father, thank You that this situation, which half a sentence ago was the cause of my anxiety, is now a grounds for thankfulness, because instead of anxiety, I have presented it to you. I have said, Father, thank You I can trust You with this. Thank You. That s why the language of trust is not please but thank You, I trust You. And instead of anxiety, he says, And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and guard your mind in Christ Jesus. We need our hearts and our minds guarded. And that verse, you see, starts with anxiety and it finishes with peace, a peace that passes understanding it s not rational. And it goes through prayer and thanksgiving to get there. Give it to God, thank Him, and now experience peace. That s what Paul taught; that s what Nehemiah did. When faced with this opposition verbally and violently, he passed it to Him. You know the answer to discouragement and discouragement is a very common thing of course; we all face it is this very thing. There are a number of times in the Bible where it says, Do not be discouraged - a number of people it was said to. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

13 Now that is not a helpful thing to hear just on its own. If you are down and discouraged and somebody says, Don t be discouraged yeah, it s all very well for you to say that. But I have looked up and I haven t time to show you them all this morning I looked up this week the context of all the Do not be discouraged and you go to cases like Moses in Deuteronomy 31:8 talking to the people and he says, The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Okay. Do not be discouraged. How do you say that? Well read it again, because he said, The Lord goes before you; he will never leave you. He will never forsake you. Get your mind off the discouragement of this wilderness experience they were in and get your mind onto the fact that God Himself will never leave you, never forsake you and is leading this whole operation. Trust Him. Joshua Chapter 1:9, God says to him, Why? Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. It s not, Don t be discouraged; that s a bad thing to feel. No, Don t be discouraged for this reason: get your focus off the issue that discourages you. God will be with you in this situation, and trust Him. And I am not going to give you others; you can look them up for yourself, but there are a lot of them. That s why Nehemiah, you know, in Chapter 4:14, he says, I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, Don t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers. Why does he say, Remember the Lord, he says to them when they are being discouraged. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

14 Why does he say, Remember the Lord? Because they have forgotten Him. That s the only reason to say, Remember the Lord. Forgotten Him in what sense? That, Oh yeah, of course, we have got a God? No, they knew that. But in their dealing with the situation, the danger was He was not at the forefront of their thinking, their understanding about this. They have tried to work it out the best way they know how. And he says, Remember don t forget. Don t sideline Him. Remember the Lord. Now I don t know what you are facing now. I don t know what situation you are in that is the cause of anxiety, or even some cases maybe you are experiencing outright opposition. But remember the Lord. Get your sights onto Him. And when we say they prayed, whatever else is involved in praying and there is a lot involved in praying the essential thing is it means they passed the buck. They passed the responsibility; they gave it over to Him. They brought God into it. That s the first thing they did. They prayed to God. The second thing they did is they prevented the enemy - they fought. In Verse 9 of Chapter 4 it says, We prayed to the Lord our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Notice how those two things go together. Not we prayed and then we did nothing because we just prayed that s enough. No, we prayed and we fought. We prevented the enemy gaining his foothold. And Verse 16 of Chapter 4 says that, From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. So he divided the workforce up. Half get on with the job; the other half are defending with these spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

15 So those who had to carry the materials, you know, they did so with a tool in one hand, a weapon in the other. C.H. Spurgeon, who was a famous preacher in the late 19 th Century, had a magazine (I think it s still available) and he called his magazine The Sword and the Trowel and he took it from this verse, this passage. The sword, whereby we fight, and the trowel by which we work; and these two things go together. There is always a two-fold explanation for the work of God. One is divine and the other is human. So we pray and we work. That s the human side of it. Work and warfare go together in this story. Building and battling go together, hand in hand. Praying and preventing go hand in hand. Don t quit one for the other; they must go together. And Nehemiah is successful in this work he is doing because he knew that God had initiated this work, and because God had initiated it, God would empower it. What God initiates, God empowers. That s right through Scripture. He who calls you is faithful; He will do it. He will initiate it; He will call you; He will empower you to make it possible. He will do it. The burden that was on Nehemiah s heart was on Nehemiah s heart because it was a burden on the heart of God. You see we are not here to initiate anything for God or for His church. We are not here to initiate anything; we are here to be obedient, to discern the initiating mind of God - what does the Lord want, what is He calling us to do - and then to trust the empowering presence of God to bring that about. And that s why God is always looking for a man over here or a woman over there or a boy up there or a girl down here who is willing to listen to Him and spend time with Him and begin to operate under His authority. And then although we face battles, we do so with confidence the One who initiated is the One who will empower. Who are our enemies? Well we could perhaps talk a lot about that, but in the book of James and Chapter 4, James identifies three primary enemies that probably encompass everything else that we have to battle with. He talks about the world, the flesh and the devil. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

16 And by the world, he is not talking about the geographical world nor is he talking about the people who live in the world. On the one hand you will see in John 3:16 it says, For God so loved the world. That s the people. On the other hand, in 1 John Chapter 2, the same writer says, Do not love the world. And there he is talking about not the people, but he is talking about the systems that govern the way the world acts and behaves. In fact he says there in 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father (it s not from God), but is of the world. Basically he is talking there about sensualism, the lust of the flesh, the appetites of the flesh that are okay and good in themselves but which become dominant. And it can apply to physical things like food that s a big one in the Scripture and sexual immorality and abuse of the sex appetite that God has given to us. It can apply to laziness. It s where the senses become dominant - the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes is materialism, what you see and want; it s greed. The love of money is a root of evil. Why? Because it is greed that motivates it. The priority of things. And the third one is egotism, the pride of life. It is the sin by which Lucifer fell. When the early church father compiled what they called The Seven Deadly Sins, the things that trip people up most often, and trip them up most badly and they put on the top of the list of the Seven Most Deadly Sins, pride. And he says this is the worldliness that we battle against sensualism, materialism, egotism, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. And this is a big enemy and it will destroy you if it can, and destroy your walk with God. It is a battle we have to continually fight. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

17 The world, the flesh the flesh is not the human body, but it is all that I am in myself apart from God. It is all that I am independently of God, the natural self, that which originates in me, that which depends on me in contrast to that which originates in God and depends on God. And the measure to which our lives can be explained purely by our own human efforts and personality is the measure to which we are living in the flesh. And Paul wrote to the Galatians in Chapter 5:17, The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit. (They are not on the same agenda.) And the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. That is the big battle that you and I face because it is from within us. The enemy is not out there at least this enemy is not out there (there are enemies out there); it is in here. We try to protect our kids from all the surrounding influences; we think that the enemy is out there. No it isn t, don t kid yourself; the enemy is within us. It s the flesh. That s one of the enemies. And Pete Briscoe has written that the flesh is me trying to live independently of God so that I can cope with my life alone. It is me saying, I can solve my problems. I can meet my needs. I can become a success myself. The flesh is trying to live life on my own apart from God. Do you know what Paul wrote about the flesh in Romans 8:8? Those that are in the flesh cannot please God. That s living by our own ability that doesn t please God. If we fight with the world and we fight with the flesh, we fight with the devil. The devil is a living being. Once he was the most beautiful of all God s created angels. But on account of his beauty, it says, he became proud. He wanted to be equal to God and so he was cast to the earth. And one of the things it says about the devil is that he prowls around like a mighty roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

18 Well I have never met a roaring lion but I don t think it is very attractive it s scary. I have met lions when I have been in a car with the windows closed. You know when he is a mighty roaring lion, we see him for what he is. But I tell you how else the Bible describes him: as an angel of light. That s not scary at all much more subtle. You need discernment to see the fingerprints of Satan because he appears as an angel of light sometimes as well as a mighty roaring lion. He will do that and do his damage but he will appear much more subtlely as well. He comes in many guises and many disguises and we have to be on our guard, as they were on their guard. You know the position for fighting in the Christian life and Ephesians 6 talks about putting on armor, but the position it speaks about is stand firm then. It s not going out; it s just standing firm. We stand on the ground that we have in Christ and we then fight. Yeah, we work with one hand and fight with the other a trowel and a sword. But we have to fight to prevent the enemy distorting and destroying the work of God. And then thirdly, just very quickly to finish, they prayed to God, they prevented the enemy and they pressed on that s the third thing. They took the enemy seriously. They had their defensive protection in place but they got on with the task God had given them. And I love the almost casual way in Chapter 4 and Verse 6 that says, So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height. So this is halftime now. But they just say, So, we rebuilt the wall. And in Verse 15, Verse 21: So we all returned to the wall, each to his own work. So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out at night. And Chapter 6:15 says, So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

19 I just love that casual, So so we got it done. Despite the battle and the pressures and the anxieties they were faced with. You know sometimes we have to make a decision to ignore the opposition too that is opposing the work of God because in Nehemiah 6:2 it tells us there that, Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: This is the message they sent: Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. Come on down; let us talk to you. But, it says, they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you? Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Here is some wisdom here: Nehemiah did not allow the opposition to the work of God to drain him of his energy or steal him away from the more important things. What do we do with opposition? We should listen to it; we should try to understand it; that s the wise thing to do. But then move on, because there are bigger things to do. Now of course Sanballat and Geshem and the others didn t stop there because in Chapter 6:5 also it says, Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written: And here is the letter: It is reported among the nations and Geshem says it is true that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Aha something more than is obvious is going on here, they tell him. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this announcement about you Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

20 in Jerusalem: There is a king in Judah! Now this report will get back to the king. So come let us chat together is what they are saying now. Oh yeah, there are hidden agendas here. Do you think we would take you seriously your face agenda? Come on, there is a hidden agenda here. Why are you building these walls? It s because you want to plan a revolt and you, Nehemiah, want to make yourself the king. You have even got your prophets ready with the proclamation to stand up and say, There is a king in Judah and it s king Nehemiah! And Nehemiah responds by saying, What you are saying has nothing to do with the truth at all. But you know, if you are not getting anywhere, start to attribute hidden agendas and then you can write the script yourself because it is hidden and nobody else knows what it is but you do; you have had insight. You know, And Geshem says it s true as well. You attribute to people hidden agenda. No your real agenda is this. Well, your real agenda is this. And they will pass it around and it becomes what people believe to be the truth. It s a subtle tactic. It s an effective one sometimes. But that s what they do here. They personalize it and they accuse him of a hidden agenda. You see there are some people, even people who ought to know better such as these in Jerusalem, who do not understand that a person can genuinely desire to do the will of God, can genuinely discern what seems to be the will of God. They have no place? When you say this is the will of God, it is actually your will, it s actually your ideas; don t say it s God s because they have no idea about discerning the mind of God. They have no idea about God guiding and directing. It is not part of their experience and so they are totally suspicious of you. And that s what they are to Nehemiah. Oswald Smith, who was the founder of this church, when facing opposition (which always happens in any kind of leadership) and facing opposition here in this church, he said this in one of his books about it. He said, The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on. And so the caravan should move on. Nehemiah kept pressing on. Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

21 Alan Redpath, who has written a book on Nehemiah, he makes a good statement about this section. He sums up this process is due to four things. He said the people had a heart to work (Chapter 4:6 says that). The people worked with all their heart. They had a mind to pray. (It says that in Chapter 4:9) But we prayed to our God. They had an eye to watch. Also in Verse 9: We prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet the situation. And fourthly, they had an ear to hear. Chapter 4 Verse 20: Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us! We didn t talk about that. It s when there was a weak area in the wall, you know, we ll blow the trumpet if it is getting attacked and you come and join us to compensate for that area of weakness. (We didn t have time to talk about that.) But what Alan Redpath says there so wisely is that these people saw success and victory because they had a heart to work, they had a mind to pray, they had an eye to watch, and they had an ear to hear. And all of this brought about the completion of the wall and gave them victory in this conflict. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 15:58 where Paul says there, Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord. Steadfast, immovable and keep doing it, and keep moving forward as you engage in the work of the Lord. Let me finish then with this. Are you struggling today? Are you struggling because there is an enemy at the door? There may be all kinds of things that you can apply this in a multitude of ways. It is because you are discouraged, because you are misunderstood? It is because things are attributed to you that have no basis and fact, but people speculate about Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

22 them and they pass them around, and it becomes to them the facts, but you know it s not. Then will you do three things? Will you pray to God pass the buck to Him. Will you prevent the enemy by battling and fighting with the armor and the weapons of our warfare, which are not carnal nor physical, but spiritual? And will you press on, keep going on, knowing that the God who initiated is the God who empowers and He will give victory? Let s pray together. Lord, I want to pray for every person in this building today. No matter how we look on the outside, none of us are exempt from the battles that are part and parcel of life, and in particular, the Christian life. Because You know at every opportunity, at every turn and twist in the road, the devil is there to bait us, to pull us down if he could. I pray for those here this morning who are discouraged, those who are misunderstood. I pray for those who are battling against sheer spiritual forces that are seeking to destroy them. I pray that You will help us to understand what it means to not be anxious but to present these things to You, thanking You for Your sufficiency and knowing a peace that passes understanding as a result. Help us to prevent the enemy where we can and where we should, battling with those weapons of our warfare, which are spiritual, not carnal, knowing Your strength, Your wisdom. And help us to have the courage to press on, not to sidetrack or to stop but to keep going and know that You will bring about the victory. Thank You we can trust You for this. I pray You will help us to do it personally as well. For we ask it in Jesus Name and for His glory. Amen. ***Note: On Page 20 near the bottom of the page They have no place there are a few words missing couldn t catch them sorry! (On the audio it s at 49:33) Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price

23 Nehemiah: Building the Walls Part 6 Price