Nehemiah 4 (Part 2) Bible Study (Opposition to the Work) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Good evening church. Good to be in the house of the Lord again to worship Him. He deserves all of our worship and praises. Let's begin by reading from the book of Acts chapter eight, beginning in verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the South, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem together, Kutughezer.

This is a desert place. And he rose and went, and there wasn't an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning seated in his chariot. And he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading?

And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied to him. Who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth?

And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you does a prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And you can ask this question, this even if you are a believer yet not baptized, what prevents you from being baptized?

And he commanded the chariot to stop And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when he came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. Blessed end up the worship of the Lord together.

Father, thank you for another Friday night we get together here, Lord. It is a joy to be in your house and to sing your praises and to worship you. Lord, we thank you for your great love for us, your mercy upon our lives each and every day. And we thank you, Lord, for your immeasurable riches that you have just lavished upon us through Christ. And we thank you, Father.

It is on the foundation of Christ that we stand and we gather together tonight. Lord, we ask that in everything we do and everything we say, in our thoughts, lord, would you dwell in us, lord? We ask for the gift of the holy spirit through all of our meeting. We ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit through the preaching and teaching of your word tonight. May every verse point us to Christ.

May we just love him all the more. May we just, grow in strength in him, love for him. And would you build us up tonight, Lord? We need your help. We ask that through the spirit, you would build us up, encourage us, and strengthen us tonight as your people.

We love you and worship you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Before you seed it, I know that some of you already planted yourselves there, but turn to somebody. Welcome to this, welcome to this Friday night bible study. Welcome to Friday night Bible study. What a joy it is to gather again.

It is always a privilege to be able to come under God's word being preached and declared, and it's always an added blessing to meet with a group of people who have that same desire and ambition. It is our habit that at this time during the service, we give, and we give from our hearts, and we give because we believe giving is an act of worship. And so, we look forward to seeing how God will continue to use these resources to solidify the plans here in this new building, this new facility, and also to continue to partner with different ministries and missions that are advancing the truth across the globe. Everything that is going towards this ministry ultimately goes to what you benefit from on a weekly basis. God's word being heralded and declared and partnering with others who have the same passion and desire.

So so grateful for your partnership in this regards. And you can always, do so through our website. These are just different ways. But if you go through our website, you can actually sign up and have an account where it keeps log of your your giving in the past and, other, information there provided as well. We'll give more information about how we've partnered with MiWell recently and how that's been a a testimony to our transition to this new building as well.

But if you want more information about that, you can always look up MiWell, and you can always go to our website and check out how you can just easily sign up and be a a part of, this ministry that's helping churches across the nation in a marvelous way. As that is taking place, I wanna just give us here a few announcements. You know this very well that our conference registration has opened, and, we are inching closer and closer to the closing of our registration, at least for those who wanna stay in lodge on the site. And so many of you already registered from last Sunday, and we're getting closer to that 300 person mark. If you haven't registered yet, I wouldn't delay.

We're looking forward to seeing who's gonna be coming. We have more new people who have registered early on than ever. And so many of these people were so excited to meet. We don't recognize their names, but they are obviously those who have watched us online, and, they'll be joining us in person. And so if you wanna be able to stay at the actual site, make sure that you don't procrastinate, and join us there.

And if you do miss that deadline, you can always join us for the meetings. And there are places around the Maranatha Bible Missionary Conference Center, that you can, look into and be a part of when it comes to the meetings. Besides that, we have our own little mini conference. Not really. It's a picnic time this Sunday.

Maybe a little preview what's coming in August. Conference is August twenty seventh to the thirtieth, but our picnic is this Sunday. So just a reminder, bring an extra change of clothes. There's gonna be some treats and some meals waiting for us immediately after the service, and we will give you more directions when it comes to that actual day. But just to let you know that that is advancing this weekend.

Moreover, our VBS registration is open as well, and that is something that you can sign up for for your children, invite family members, invite friends. You can get more information there on the QR code that should be there. If it's not there, you can always find it on our website on mbchicago.org. And, again, that is open as well. That is soon approaching.

You probably saw some of our volunteers out there painting and building things together. And I think they're very grateful that we have much more space to be able to do that kind of stuff here. And so we give God glory for even that. Well, that's all I want to share for now. I want to reserve every minute I can to what we are here for, and for what we are here for.

And so before we do that, let's open up in a word of prayer, and ask for God's help, shall we? Father, we thank you that these doors are open beyond Sunday. We thank you that you've put it in the hearts of people here to yearn for more of the truth, Because we know that this word is inexhaustible. We know that knowing Christ is an eternal pursuit. And Lord, as we have come here now to this book yet again, we pray that your presence and your power would intensify.

We pray, Lord, that we would sense the guidance of your Holy Spirit. And that, Lord, these truths would be given to us in such wonder, and in such conviction that it would change us. We cannot manipulate. We cannot fabricate. We cannot produce that kind of power.

It only can come from you, and this is why we stopped to pray. We pray, oh Lord, that you would be seen, you would be heard, And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's meet together in the book of Nehemiah in chapter four. Nehemiah chapter four.

This Bible study will remind us that the enemy of our souls will not sit idly by as we seek to build God's kingdom. Nehemiah and his fellow workers experienced this firsthand as we witnessed last week in the beginning of chapter four of this book. And we identified in those opening verses how the attacks of these fellows named Sanballat and Tobiah, reflect perfectly how Satan schemes and strategizes against those who are committed to the ministry. Not just those who are in full time ministry, those who serve in any capacity. In fact, their scorn and their mockery provides a immaculate model of what we can experience and what we can expect if we serve God long enough from the one who hates our God, who hates those who are created in his image, and who hates those who have been purchased and redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we determined from the first three verses of chapter four, five tactics of Satan through his agents, the enemies of the Jewish people at this time, in order to be better prepared. But allow me to review those things with you quite briefly. The first thing that we establish is that the enemy often points out our weaknesses until it paralyzes us. Secondly, the enemy questions our motives until you begin to doubt your own intentions. What am I really doing this for?

That could be debilitating. Thirdly, the enemy ridicules our dependence on God. Fourthly, the enemy magnifies the difficulty of God's work of what's ahead in order to deplete your enthusiasm. And finally, the enemy often draws our attention to our lack of resources. Now as helpful as exposing these strategies are, the Lord still has more for us to be equipped and prepared.

And that is what we will see in these next few verses. Because the rest of this chapter is going to reveal to us how Nehemiah and how his fellow Jews will respond to these verbal assaults. And whether demoralizing thoughts arise in our own minds or they come our way through agents of the evil one who have given him a foothold in their lives, we can see what Nehemiah does here, implement it and know the same success that he did. And so there are four responses that we will gather from these verses and that are accessible to all of us, in fact, must be taken seriously if we want to expect genuine endurance in serving Christ. And I believe it will helpful to begin here in Nehemiah four verse one to get the whole picture again, and let's read down through verse five.

Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day?

Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burn ones at that? Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, yes. What are they building? If a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. Hear, oh our God, for we are despised.

Turn back their taunt on their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. The first thing that Nehemiah does in his reaction, and in order to counter these mental strikes from his enemies, is take these accusations and these insinuations and bring them before the Lord in prayer. Number one. Nehemiah takes these thoughts and brings them before God in prayer.

Now we're going to explore that, but before we even see Nehemiah praying here, he does something else. It can be easily missed. Notice how Nehemiah, who clearly hears what his foes are saying, does not respond to them. He does not retaliate. He does not stoop down to their level and insult them back.

In fact, he does not even enter any any kind of interaction. And the reason why Nehemiah does this is because he was a discerning man. Nehemiah understood that involving himself in this kind of dialogue would in itself, be a distraction from the momentum that they gained from chapter three, which shows us that he recognized that the slander that these kind of scornful remarks were a trap. To take them away from what really mattered at this time, and that was to be fully engaged in the work of the Lord. And if you think that we're reading too much into this, allow me to show you what Nehemiah does when he is visited again by the same men who try to draw him away from this work.

Go over to Nehemiah chapter six. Look here in verse two. Nehemiah chapter six verse two. It says here, Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, come and let us meet together at Hecaphirim in the Plain Of Ono. But they intended to do me harm.

And I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? You see? We're gonna explore this more when we come to this chapter, but the one thing I want you and I to see here is that distraction is a constant strategy of the evil one to bring you and I away from what God has called us to do. And distraction takes many forms, And what we find here is that it comes in the manifestation of people who seek to draw us away through criticism, arguments, and even accusations, not intended to help us, but to harm us.

Any serious minded believer, especially leaders, have to determine with great discernment what conversations are worth having with people. What kind of comments or problems are worth addressing? And what battles are worth fighting? Lest you find yourself getting involved in one pointless and futile endeavor after another. Not every email has to be answered.

Not every text has to be responded to. And I can get more into that. But what I want to say here is that Nehemiah does not completely ignore Sanballat and Tobiah. He just doesn't give him them his attention. He doesn't have any conversation with him.

Instead, he reserves his energy to speak to the one who actually could bring change to this difficult moment, God Himself. And what's so wonderful here in verse four is that the author, who was Nehemiah, led by the spirit, goes straight into Nehemiah's prayer. That's intentional. You know, usually, we learn and we read here that Nehemiah prayed, and then it goes on into the prayer, But that's not even there. There's no preparation for it.

It goes straight into his supplication. That's deliberate. And it's meant to show us that Nehemiah's praying in response to these attacks was a reflex. It was not an afterthought. It was not his third or fourth resort.

It was instinctive. And even reading it is meant to convey that. Right after we read about Tobias says following Sanballat, it just breaks out into a cry to God, showing us that this man of God really believed in prayer. And he really believed that prayer can do something about the words of others. In fact, every true man or woman of God knows the strength of this practice.

Whether such debasing thoughts emerge from your own heart, or they are hurled against you from those who are mouthpieces for Satan to run to prayer and bring the accusations and the lies and the doubts of others or from your own brain can be dealt with by an almighty God. You see this throughout the Bible, and one of the strongest Psalms that confirms this is Psalm one zero nine. You have to see it for yourself. This is perhaps one of the most powerful Psalms concerning what prayer can do to a man, what prayer can do for a man. And unfortunately, in our English translations, it can be missed.

But I'm here to help us see it. I want you to see Psalm one zero nine verse one. And I'll wait for you to get there. Psalm one zero nine verse one. The psalmist says, be not silent, oh god of my praise, for wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.

Pause. Does that sound familiar? Are we dealing with the same thing in Nehemiah chapter four? Yes. He goes on.

They encircle me with words of hate and attack me without cause and return for my love, they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. This is amazing. While they abuse me with their words, I will pray about it in secret. Now what's so fascinating is that last part of verse four where it says, but I give myself to prayer. If you have a good translation, there should be a footnote in your Bible.

And it should bring you to the bottom of that page, and it will give you the actual Hebrew rendering. Do you know what it is? It literally translate as follows, but I am prayer. But I am prayer, and it can even get more it could be brought down to even to this degree where he says, but I prayer, not even I am prayer. Is there a typo?

No. There's a message even in that. Here's the psalmist saying, I don't just use prayer. I don't just go to prayer from time to time. I'm so enveloped and I'm so convinced of prayer, it's inseparable from my identity.

I'm associated with prayer to the degree that I can say, I am prayer. It's the old testament version of pray without ceasing. So convinced, so enslaved by the faithfulness of God through prayer that the psalmist gladly identifies himself as prayer. It's a part of my being. It's not just a part of my schedule.

It's it's my existence. I am in constant communication with God. But why? Why does he speak so highly of prayer? Why why does he dare to say, I am prayer?

Well, one indication is in verse 21. Look at Psalm one zero nine verse 21. But you, oh God, my Lord, deal on my behalf for your namesake. Because your steadfast love is good, deliver me. Very simple.

The psalmist believed that God would answer him. Deal on my behalf for your name's sake. Does God care about your thoughts or the words of others against you? Clearly, he does. He's willing to do something about it.

Now I'm aware that Nehemiah's pivot to prayer is very admirable, but perhaps the content of his praying is what challenges us the most. Did you did you see not just how he prayed, but what he prayed? It can be summarized in these two requests. Number one, he asked God to make his enemies captives, to literally go into exile to be brought into a foreign land. And more than that, he asked God to never forgive their sins for pure condemnation.

It's not surprising then how there is much debate about whether Nehemiah was right or wrong for asking God for these things. And that conversation even becomes more difficult when you realize that Nehemiah's type of prayer is not uncommon in the old testament. Is it? So common is it that students of the scriptures have determined a category for this kind of supplication. It's called imprecatory prayers.

Imprecatory prayers or imprecatory Psalms. What does imprecatory mean? It's to call upon God to bring judgment, destruction, or condemnation against one's enemies. You've probably read these kind of Psalms and wonders, how does this apply to me? Break the teeth of the wicked.

Dash their children against the rocks. Nehemiah is echoing that same spirit here. Now here are a few things that we have to consider to make sense of these kind of intercessions. Number one, whenever you come across an imprecatory prayer like this, they are petitions for God to intervene with his perfect justice. They are not premeditations of one's personal desire for vengeance.

These kind of prayers are not somebody coming up with a way to be able to actually execute vengeance against others who have hurt them. They are appeals to God to come to their defense. There's a big difference. And clearly, they are acceptable to God or else God would not have included these kind of prayers in the prayer book of the Bible, namely the Psalms. Which brings me to a second important understanding of these imprecatory prayers in Psalms.

They show us that we have room and freedom to express ourselves in the presence of God when we are righteously indignant. If you take anything away from these types of prayers, they show us that we have liberty, not irreverently, but honestly to come before God and say, Lord, this is how I'm feeling about this. And I'm asking you to intervene with your power, your might, and God's willing to listen. Lastly, imprecatory prayers are never motivated by personal interest, but ultimately are stimulated by one's broken heartedness of God's cause or character being violated by others. Look back in Nehemiah verse five of chapter four.

What's the the the core reason for Nehemiah praying this way? He says it. For they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. So all the mockery, all the criticism, all the desires of the enemy to bring harm to the people of God ultimately was against God. The critique of the walls was a critique of God's walls.

The critique of the Jews was a critique of God's people. Nehemiah understood this. And Nehemiah felt a holy jealousy. This disturbed him. And that's what you'll find throughout the bible.

Although there is an element of personal pain for people to pray in this way, when you read on and you read carefully, you realize that the real pain is what people are doing against God. And now they're trying to hinder and stop God's work advancing. And so there's a call for him to intervene. Now these are just some of the ways that you and I can apply these kind of prayers. But we have to understand something very important.

Our cue to know how to pray is ultimately found in the New Testament, because we are a new covenant people. And like many themes or practices that we find in the Old Testament that are later matured or enlightened in the new, so it is with prayer. In fact, do you remember how this spirit manifested through two of Jesus' disciples? As Jesus set his face to go down to Jerusalem, he sent some of his disciples to go ahead to prepare a place for him in Samaria. This is located in Luke chapter nine.

They go there. They are rejected. And James and John come up to Jesus, and what do they ask? Lord, can we call down fire from heaven that we may consume them? That sounds like an imprecatory prayer to me.

What do you think? But how does Jesus answer in Luke nine fifty five? It says, but He rebuked them. He rebuked them. And some manuscripts add the following, where he says, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of.

So there is a shift. There is a different emphasis in the new covenant that we ultimately have to obey and submit ourselves to. Are there still principles with these imprecatory prayers that we can apply in the context of the new covenant? Absolutely. But we know exactly what the Lord told us to do and how to pray about our enemies.

Nonetheless, Nehemiah here shows us that going to God in prayer, when doubts are shot at you or they begin to emerge within you, talk to God about it. And as we'll see in the coming weeks, this kind of praying will produce results. But we come to the second thing that Nehemiah does, and it's found in one verse, verse six. Let's read it now. Nehemiah four six reads, so we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

When you and I are coming under attack with discouragement, with doubts, with slander, from your own vain imaginations or from cleverly devised schemes that Satan uses through people. Number two, whatever you do, do not stop working. Do not stop serving. That's exactly what Satan wants. And what we see here is that they didn't.

Now it's easy to isolate verse six in order to teach or encourage Christians about good Christian work ethic, but you diminish its power when you disconnect it from its context. What we have here is the response of Nehemiah to the inflammatory words of his enemies. So we built the wall. They mocked our wall. They minimized us, and it didn't make a difference.

Listen carefully. One way that you and I can revolutionize the way we experience internal or external discouragement, difficult people, or any other obstacle that would try to hinder us from giving everything we have to the Lord is by knowing that ultimately, such trials are designed to render us inactive. When you're mindful of this, you're less likely to give into it. But if you're not mindful of it, that subtle scheme will have its way in us. And we'll allow any challenge if it's hot enough, if it's strong enough to actually cause us to throw in the towel.

Nehemiah shows discernment in another way. Here he understands, no matter how we feel, no matter what is said, we cannot afford to stop. That is the kind of resolve that each of us need. And it's truly amazing to me how so many Scriptures come alive only when you and I are going through any particular trial. Have you ever experienced that?

Even a common passage in the Bible, you may have read it a 100 times. And only when God allows you to experience a certain kind of season, where those verses or those phrases or those promises begin to glow. And light begins to shoot up. And thinking to yourself, where has this been all my life? How did I miss this?

In the most difficult season for ministry in my life, One of those verses is what Paul said to the Thessalonians in first Thessalonians chapter two. And I'd love to share it with you because maybe it will come to somebody's aid tonight. If you don't want to turn there, listen to me just quote it. Paul says in first Thessalonians two verse two, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. Wow.

It's that last phrase, in the midst of much conflict. If you wanna know what Paul had to endure in Philippi, on your own time, read Acts chapter 16. It's that famous passage where he had his back ripped apart with Silas, and then they were thrown into prison where they sang hymns and an earthquake came. And then following Philippi, when he goes to Thessalonica, the same group of Christians that he is writing to, there was riots that he had to escape. And then from Thessalonica, he had to go to a place called Berea where these these stalkers followed him and created another problem.

These are real problems. But can I tell you something based on this verse? This is what this is what moved me in that trial a handful of years ago. Paul did not only preach when his ministry was free from trouble. Paul did not only preach when it was convenient.

Paul was still willing to serve the way God called him to serve in the midst of much conflict. And as I said, do you wanna know real conflict? Look at those two chapters in the book of acts and see what this man had to escape. What do you have to dodge? What do you have to flee from?

And yet this is the same man who said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So let me ask this in love. Why is it that we are so willing to pause or quit altogether when some doubt trickles in, or we get some threats, or people begin to question our reputation or integrity. That is exactly what Satan wants. And Nehemiah reminds us not to give him what he wants.

And he also shows us that one of the ways that we can keep going when we are tempted to second guess or despise our work It's found in that same verse in Nehemiah four verse six. Look at it again. He's the author of these memoirs. So what does he say? So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height for the people had a mind to work.

Do you know what I see here? Nehemiah celebrating progress. Did they complete the wall? No. Is half a wall going to do for their protection?

Absolutely not. But what does he say? But we built halfway up. So earlier, we read here how they said, can they build this in a day? They have no idea what's coming to them.

They have no idea how challenging this task really is. And Nehemiah chooses to ignore all of that and say, but let me show you what God has done up to this point. And let me testify of it. Sometimes we look at our own ministries, as I mentioned last week, and think to ourselves, is this really producing anything? Is this really effective?

Is this really fruitful? Look at this example. Instead of focusing on what not and what could be and what about, what is God doing? What has He done? And I promise you, by the authority of God's word, you will tap into more fuel for faithfulness.

So Nehemiah, first thing that he does is, he brings these accusations, these lies, these doubts to the Lord in person. God, you gotta do something about this because if this endures, if this overtakes me, I'm finished. But no matter how he felt, even though he said, oh, we're being despised. Secondly, he did not stop working. May we have the grace and the conviction that the only thing that can stop us from working is if God calls us home.

Let all of hell belch all that it wants against us. It's gonna take more than that. Thirdly, Nehemiah shows us that one of the ways that we can endure and we can excel, even in the midst of much conflict, is to draw strength from community. Just draw strength from community. Let's read from verse seven down to verse nine.

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward, and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. Pause there. Notice, we don't even have just an escalation here of allies against the Jews. We have a escalation of emotion. They were very angry.

Why were they angry? Because their demoralizing attacks did not work. And so let me emphasize this again. You can't afford to surrender so easily. They became very angry.

And so what do they do? They ramp up the threats. Verse eight. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. So now we go from taunts outside of the walls to threats, military attack, perhaps guerrilla attacks.

And on top of that, that wasn't enough, there's gonna be an intensification of psychological warfare. You You see that last part of verse eight? And to cause confusion in it. So what do they do? Now there's they're literally surrounded.

There's more planning taking place. Nehemiah is aware of these plots. There's now talks of actual weapons, not just thoughts being deposited and planted, but actual arrows being shot and swords being swung. What will Nehemiah do at this point? Because you have to remember as much as we are called not to quit, we also have to understand that Satan himself is not a quitter.

He's very committed to his cunning. He's very committed to doing all that he can to stop the church from advancing. Look at verse nine. And we prayed to our god and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. Now one might derive from this that Nehemiah prays again.

That's what we're supposed to do. Keep praying. Sure. But I don't think that's the emphasis. I believe the emphasis of verse nine is how the people have rallied together.

Look at the language of verse nine. And we prayed. And we prayed. Earlier, we read how Nehemiah prayed. Here, oh god, for we are despised.

And there's a clear shift going on now. We scroll here to verse nine when we see that this is an explicit and clear description of the people of God seeking the lord together. We prayed. And this is yet another reminder that there is a special grace to succeeding a spiritual warfare when we are connected to a platoon of believers to fight together. The enemy is aware of the blessing that comes through community.

When you have a group of Christians who actually fear God in His Word, who actually believe in prayer, who are actually serious minded about the work of the Lord. That's what we have here with these Jews. Or else, why would Sanballat and Tobiah here try to cause confusion in it? They understand that if they can weaken this fellowship, if they can isolate, if they can scramble this congregation, they have the upper hand. Which means you and I have a calling to value the church in such a way that we seek to protect her purity and her unity in whatever assembly that you and I are part of.

Because if we're not intentional about that, if we're not strategic, then eventually, the enemy will find his way inside and attack our faith from within. That's exactly what we see next. Look at verse 10. In Judah, it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble.

By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall. Hold on for a second. Is this Sanballat and Tobiah speaking? No. Look again at verse 10.

In Judah, it was said. This is staggering. So you you have these taunts from the outside that have now made their way into the hearts of some of the people. And like many instances of spiritual warfare, Nehemiah is no longer dealing with just external threats. He is now having to face internal depletion and dismay, leading to a potential opposition on another front.

Look how ruthless the enemy is. It's one thing to try to make sense and to try to shield yourself from the things that are happening beyond these walls, and now you have internal problems at the same time. He's merciless. So this is a new challenge for this man. But my question was, what caused the people in Judah to speak like this?

They're verbalizing this. And one might think, well, this is what fatigue brings about. This is what happens when the initial enthusiasm for the work of the Lord begins to wear off. I'm sure that's part of it, but there's something deeper going on here. If you look at the language of verse 10 carefully, it's an echo.

Look here at verse 10 again. In Judah, it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall. Compare this with what Sanballat said earlier.

Look up here in verse two of Nehemiah four. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing? These weak Jews, what do they think that they're doing? What do they think that they're gonna accomplish? Will they restore for themselves?

Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burn ones at that? These belittling comments, these rationales of unbelief have made way into the hearts of God's people. That can only mean one thing.

Some of the people in Judah took their eyes off of the Lord. They have forgotten the testimonies of God's faithfulness and miraculous provision leading up to this moment, and have failed to believe Nehemiah's vision, which is ultimately God's vision. And you stay in that condition long enough and you begin to believe what the enemy says. Look at verse 14. Nehemiah is going to say in a moment here, remember the Lord who is great and awesome.

That is the source of what's happening here. They have forgotten the Lord and how great and awesome He is. And so it creates this vacuum. However, there's even more going on here than meets the eye. I wanna make the case to you tonight that the reason why some of the people in Judah were verbalizing and entertaining the cessation of this work is because some of them were in compromise.

It's not until you go to chapter six where Nehemiah discovers something about the very same people of Judah that we find here in Nehemiah chapter four, and it is scandalous. And it's actually gonna help us make sense of why some people are so good at discouraging Christians. Go to Nehemiah six with me. I want you to see this. It's worth it.

In verse 17. Nehemiah six verse 17. Nehemiah writes, Moreover, in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. There's correspondence between some of the nobles of Judah and Tobiah. There's exchange of text messages here.

Look at verse 18. Why? For many in Judah, not some, many in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah, the son of Ara, and his son, Johanan, had taken the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah as his wife. Are you seeing this with me? What we find here is how Nehemiah exposes how some of the leaders in Judah and the people of Judah were in cahoots with Tobiah.

Why? Because Tobiah and his son married into some of the families of nobility in Judah. And beyond marriage alliances, Tobias close ties within the Jewish community also appear to have created financial entanglements. I believe that's what Nehemiah means here when he says that many were bound by oath to him. So the discouragement of chapter four begins to make a little bit more sense, doesn't it?

That you had some within Judah that were trying to steer this project away from completion because according to chapter six, some of them were allies with Tobiah. They were related to Tobiah. They had business deals with Tobiah. And they saw Nehemiah completing the walls as a threat to their personal desires and their profit. And this came to mind earlier this afternoon.

If you were here studying Ezra, remember, the book of Ezra ends with Ezra confronting those for the crime of what? Interfaith marriage. Do you remember that? And people wonder, what's the big deal? Ezra was a little bit too extreme with his reaction and his disciplinary actions.

Really? Here's one example of the long term consequences of what took place in Ezra. You had some who allowed Tobiah and his son to marry in to the pure breed, And it's creating problems here with Nehemiah's desire to build the walls. Who would have thought? But there's more for us to learn here.

Someone rightly pointed out that those who discourage listen to my language carefully. Not those who experience discouragement, not those who voice the discouragement that they are trying to manage, but those who actively and habitually discourage tend to be two types of Christians. Number one, those who are weak in their faith, and number two, those who have other ambitions greater than that of serving God and His kingdom. The first kind we dealt with. If we're fair, the reason why some of these Jews are expressing what they're expressing here is because they lost touch with who the Lord is.

And so it is with Christians even today. They don't meditate in the Word. They don't build their faith over time. They're not committed to spiritual disciplines that keep them strong. And so with any kind of obstacle, any kind of difficulty, they so easily crumble under the pressure.

And more than that, they like to bring other people down with them. They're like evangelists for discouragement. They think it's like a spiritual gift to get everybody else to think like how they think. Look at the language of verse 10. Is there any mention of God?

Did you notice this? In Judah, it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There's too much rubble by ourselves. We will not be able to rebuild the wall. No mention of Yahweh.

No mention of the Lord. No mention of his promises. No mention of his faithfulness. No mention of past testimonies. It's just me how weak I am.

Look how much rubble that is. That is the fruit of somebody who has been disconnected from the spirit and the truth of God's word. Compare this kind of language with what Nehemiah says in verse 14. Remember the Lord who's great and awesome. You go down to verse 20.

What does Nehemiah say again? Our God will fight for us. Totally different attitudes because of two different kinds of people who have a different background in their walk with God. But listen, don't ever forget that criticism can also manifest through professing believers who are not just weak, but who are worldly. Those who are involved in the church, but behind the scenes, they they have different plans in mind.

They have different dreams. And to be quite frank, they are worldly. Is it possible to be a worldly Christian? Absolutely. And some of those Christians have the habit of casting a negative light on God's work, devaluing it.

And if they are bold enough to actually redirect it so that it can benefit them some way and somehow. That's what we find in Nehemiah chapter six. They're working with Tobiah, and so they have the gall to be able to actually tell Nehemiah to change his plans. I was reminded of what the Lord said to Peter when He told His disciples that He was ready to go to Jerusalem to suffer, to die, and to raise on the third day, and Peter rebukes Jesus. It's unbelievable.

And the Lord looks at him and says, get behind me, Satan, for you are a hindrance to me. Why are you a hindrance to me? For you have not set your mind on the things of God, but on the things of, what? Man. In that moment, Peter's worldly thinking opened a door for the enemy to use him to actually discourage the Messiah.

This is why I don't wanna mess with sin. I don't wanna mess with sin. I don't I don't wanna be one foot in the world, one foot in the church. Why? Because whether you realize it or not, you could become as a tool for Satan.

Was Peter conscious of the fact that Satan planted thoughts in him so that he can spew it out the way he did? I don't think so. I think he got that revelation when the lord said Satan. In the same way, there are professing Christians who because of their lack of holiness and sanctification and affections being supremely set on Christ have warped thinking, and then they bring it into the church. And they sit down with leadership and give worldly ideas, carnal concepts, even criticism, which which really, really provides us an important principle, especially for those who are in leadership if you want to spare yourself from much discouragement.

Don't just look at what someone says, but who is saying it. That is crucial. Who is saying this to me? Not just what is being said. Who is this person?

Do they have credibility? Do they fear God? Are they holy? I'm not saying that we should ever humble ourselves and listen to those who might be weak in faith. That's not what I'm getting at.

What I'm getting at is, you can't just take everything people say to you because the vessel may be impure. And in this case, Nehemiah is dealing with two types of people within. Those who are weak and those who are worldly. And if you're not careful, you and I can allow those from within to keep us from going forward. Nehemiah refused to do this.

Instead, he retaliates in a very sanctified and spirit led way, which brings us to our fourth point. How does Nehemiah respond to this? This growing problem of not just external threats, but internal confusion and conflict and criticism. Let's read here in verse 11. And our enemies said, they will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.

At the time, the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us 10 times, you must return to us. Some other translations add if you have a King James, there are some words that are added to verse 12 to try to help make sense of this verse. But the idea is, you have those who are outside of Jerusalem, who are hearing about the threats from the enemies, and they are pleading with Nehemiah to do something about it. Verse 13. So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall in open places, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. If you wanna know greater fortitude, if you wanna anchor yourself in the work of God, you must remember the Lord and the blessing of serving him. You must remember the Lord and the blessings of serving him. So far, we have considered what?

Nehemiah prays. Nehemiah keeps working. Nehemiah draws strength from the community. But now we see that Nehemiah calls to mind the character of God first. He understood here that the root cause for most of these problems was blurred vision.

The people, unfortunately, came to a point where they lost sight of who God is. And so Nehemiah has, in his great leadership, the ability to bring to the forefront of their minds who they are actually serving. And I want you to see here that the sabotaging of their faith, and what's being influenced in terms of their resolve to move forward, is that they were in the dark. So he shines the light of truth to chase away the mist of fear and hesitation. But notice how careful he is.

He doesn't just give general truths about who God is. What's the main threat here now? Violence, war, actual weaponry. So he emphasizes what? The greatness and the might of God.

He sees the precise wound in the soul, and he provides the exact prescription to confront it. This man knew the Bible. We're gonna see that as we find him praying in chapter nine. This man knew the Bible. This man knew the truths of God, and he knew how to wield the right truth for the right malady.

And that is that is a call for us to become as familiar as possible, to have a comprehensive understanding of who God is so that we can deal with a variety of problems in our own lives or in other people's lives. So if the source of your discouragement is your own weakness, and deficiencies, and feebleness, what do you know about God's promises for those who are weak? What do you know about the the history of God's work through people who seem to be unqualified and unfavored and overlooked? What do you know? What kind of reservoir have you created in your soul to know, to deal with that precise nagging thought?

If the source of your discouragement is the is the lack of recognition or appreciation or even fruitfulness in whatever that you're doing for the Lord. What do you know about God's reward system? What do you know about how he evaluates success? You see, we have to get specific here. And the only way that you can get specific is if you soak yourself in the Bible from cover to cover.

The greatest counselors in my life are those who know the word of God enough where they can pull out any scripture for any situation in my life. And if you and I want to be of great benefit to other believers, we must be able to do the same. That takes time, that takes patience, but it also takes the commitment to say, I want to know everything that God has to say, so that I can speak into any situation that comes my way. But Nehemiah doesn't stop there. Nehemiah does remind them about who God is, but he also reminds them of the great blessing of serving God.

How does he do this? Look at the end of verse 14. And fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. You know, one of the reasons why so many become victims to discouragement is because they can't see past the short term benefits of living for God. And what Nehemiah does here is broaden their understanding that the reward of remaining steadfast goes beyond themselves.

Your faithfulness will influence your families. This is what he's speaking. This is what he's saying. Your determination to keep your hands on that plow will have generational consequences. Your family is at stake.

Your wife is at stake. Your children are at stake. Look beyond yourself. Look beyond how you're weak and how you're tired, and how there's so much for you to lift and so much for you to fix. This goes beyond you.

And it would do us much good from time to time if we pause and reflected at the blessings that await us when we attend and participate in meetings like this, what our private prayer lives can produce, what holiness will mean not just to us, but to those who watch us and those who will follow us. Because there is a greater significance to what you and I do for the Lord, And that's what Nehemiah is teaching here. In fact, this is so clear that it reminds us also that Satan will often convince us that what you will gain in giving up is supposedly far greater than what you will gain if you just stay faithful to the Lord. Satan will always present you the immediate relief, the rest, the escape of backing away from what God has called you to do. And God's truth and God's men will remind you that there is far greater blessing of serving God.

And more than that, the future rewards that await, and not just your future, but the futures of others. Speaking about motivation, here's where I wanna land. This is all wonderful. Right? But it reminds me of the chiefest of all motivations in remaining steadfast to Christ.

Not too long ago, I was reading the gospel of John. I shared some thoughts to our prayer gathering a couple of Wednesdays ago. And in John 21, I lingered for so long because there are so many gems in those verses when Christ restores Peter back to service. John 21 is about Jesus restoring Peter back to ministry. And I want you to see this in John 21.

Would you go there with me? My prayer is that this would move us. Three times, Jesus asked Peter, do you love me? And three times, Peter affirms his love. But look at the language here in verse 15 again.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord. You know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. Now many come to this conversation to make a point that one of the ways that you prove your love for Christ is by serving Him.

Do you love me? I do love you. Then I'm calling you to feed my lambs. Go and feed them. Prove that you love me.

I know that's true. I mean, there's many other places in the Bible that affirms that. But there's something else happening here. There's another truth that's tucked in here. From the opposite perspective, I would say that what this teaches is you and I can't truly serve Christ unless we love Him.

You know what Jesus didn't say, and He could have said it? Do you love my lambs? Yes, Lord. I love your lambs. Then feed my lambs.

That's not what He says. Do you love me? Yes, lord. I love you. Then feed my lambs.

You and I cannot know genuine ministry unless we have sincere affection for Christ. This is the secret. And it's a wonderful insight. Because, listen, if you love ministry because of the company in ministry or the activity of ministry, you're setting yourself up for a very bumpy journey. Because if you serve Christ long enough, you're gonna have plenty of reasons to reconsider your commitment.

But if Christ is the reason why you do what you do, well, He will never fail you. And He is absolutely perfect, and He is endlessly glorious. And so you have less likelihood of actually giving up because you're doing it for the one who is splendid and infinitely beautiful. Do you love me? Yes.

Now that that is established, you can serve me. Christ is the greatest motivation. I believe with all my heart that Nehemiah loved God more than anything. That's why he was doing what he was doing. He didn't love walls.

You think Nehemiah loved walls? Is that why he was building walls? He had, like, this architectural dream down deep inside, and this was his chance to shine. He wept too many tears for that to be true. He endured way too much for that to be true.

Nehemiah loved God. Supreme affection for the person of Christ is the greatest energizing force in serving Christ. Any other reason to serve the Lord should be secondary. But when you put secondary things and tertiary things as the first thing, you only have so much gas in the tank. What gets you and I going?

What makes us come here early? Why deal with the persecution and the lack of appreciation? Why the sorrows? Who else signs up for this? I'll tell you who, those who are madly in love with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the only thing that makes sense. Unless you're doing it for another reason, and any other reason is futile. It's a setup for failure. And so if I can drive anything in your heart, it is this. One of the ways that you can contribute to your commitment is to seek Christ for who He is and let Him enthrall you over and over and over again where you helplessly say, what do you want me to do?

Where you become like an Isaiah, who in response to the triune God says, whom shall he sent we send? And he says, here I am. Send me. Isaiah didn't even know what he was signing himself up for. He was so captivated by the holiness of God and the glory of God that when he got a peep into what?

The triune God saying, who can we send for us? He goes, I'll do it. Okay. You're gonna preach and nobody's gonna listen to you. And he does it.

Why? Because he's doing it for God. And so as we come to a close in this Bible study, Nehemiah offers us very helpful truths. But in this truth of motivation, remembering who God is and remembering the blessings of serving the Lord, down deep inside of us, the the throbbing power of it all should be it's Christ. It's Christ.

And I love how before Jesus reinstates Peter, Jesus wants to clarify and establish if his love for him is still there. Do you love me more than these? And there's debate about what he meant when he said than these. Was it the fish? Was it the disciples?

Whatever conclusion you land on, Christ deserves supreme love. That's the point. Okay. Now you can go and feed my sheep. I have one prayer for us today, one simple prayer.

A lot of things that were heard, sure, but my heart was stirred by this. Lord, help us fall deeper in love with you, and everything else will flow. Everything else will follow. And perhaps, perhaps, perhaps the reason why you're running on fumes, the reason why you are agitated more than ever, could it be, could it be that you've lost sight of why you're doing what you're doing? Even if you're doing it to help people, that is inferior to the ultimate reason, and that's doing it for him.

The greatest way to serve him is to do it for him. And if that is protected and that is strengthened by God's grace, we will be immovable. Nehemiah prays. Nehemiah keeps working. Nehemiah draws strength from community.

And lastly, Nehemiah remembers the Lord, and he's reminding them who they're ultimately doing it for and who's for them and the blessings of serving him because oftentimes, we lose sight of those blessings. May Christ be glorified. Let's pray. Thank him. Lord, we thank you.

We thank you that you can be so loud in a passage that seems so quiet with application. And, Lord, in this moment, we choose to respond to you from our hearts. And we wanna thank you for this church filled with servants. Those who serve here, those who serve in different congregations. We believe, lord, that what you've said to us tonight is meant for us tonight.

And so we are overflowing with thanks and praise and realizing that you seek to equip us so that we can finish well. Lord, may you give us the reflex of this man of God who knew how to speak to you whenever he was troubled. May you give us the resolve to keep going no matter how we feel or what is happening around us. May we see the beauty and the blessing of community and seek to protect it, lest community become another reason why we are hindered. And may we ever have the truths of who God is before us and the blessings that are connected to it, so that we would never become overcome with despair or doubt.

We honor You tonight, and we stand as Your soldiers, as Your servants in a moment to praise you from the place of total faith in you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's stand, servants of the Lord Jesus, and let's thank him for speaking to our hearts tonight. Let's pray together.

Lord, only you know the hearts of men. Help us not give up. Help us not give up, Lord, and help us especially as a church that has just started in this exciting new chapter, to be aware of the evil one and his tactics, his devices. Not to focus on them, but to be prepared for them. And Lord, if there's any grace that you can give us as we try to establish ourselves here with all the logistical things, and all the financial things, and all the practical things, Lord, we pray that you set Christ before us, that he would be our filter in all things, and that you would draw out of our hearts greater love, greater passion for him.

Lord, we pray that as we walk out of this building in a moment, that we would genuinely sense a strength that has been granted from heaven. And that, Lord, we would be prepared to continue to go on in what you've asked us to do. Our prayer is that every person here and who's listening, that we would finish well. By your grace that we would finish well. And we trust that that will be the testimony of this church.

We give you all the honor and all the praise and all the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. May the strength of Christ be your portion tonight, and by his grace, may we be reunited again so that we can draw from this community in order to know greater strides for his kingdom. May the Lord be with you tonight. Be blessed in Jesus' name.

Take care now.