August 18th, 2024
From The Series: When
God Rebuilds…
Part 27 "We Will
Face Enemies in Our Efforts"
Nehemiah 4:1-15
Mountain View
Evangelical Missionary Church
The title for the sermon this
morning is, "We Will Face Enemies in Our Efforts", "We Will Face
Enemies in Our Efforts". This morning, my main goal will be to speak to
the reality of the enemies we face when we are engaged in efforts for God's
Kingdom. There are three main classes of enemies of God: The Primary Enemy; enemies
who are external to the Body of Christ; and enemies who are internal to the
Body of Christ.
One of the primary points that we
must keep in mind when we face these enemies is that the battle is the Lord's.
The battle with the enemies of His people belongs primarily to the Lord. What
we are called to do is to remain faithful to His teachings and to pray.
This past Thursday at our Bible
study, we were discussing the arrest of Jesus in the Garden and we examined
what Jesus said to Peter after Peter had cut off the ear of the servant from
the High Priest with a short sword. Jesus rebuked Peter by saying, "53 Do you think I cannot call on my
Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of
angels?". We then
turned to 2 Kings 19:35 to read in Scripture what the power of just one angel
was, "35 That night the angel of
the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the
Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead
bodies!" What Jesus was telling Peter, and by extension is telling
us through the Bible is that if He wanted to, the Lord could call on His angels
and there would be complete victory in a heartbeat.
There is a mistaken worldview out there that
creeps its way into the church from time to time where people think and teach God
is in an epic battle with the forces of evil, and God is doing His level best,
but it appears that He is losing here on Earth at the moment. I pray, that over
the last 12 months preaching from the Old Testament like I have been doing, I
was able to show you that God is in control of all things at all times. This
cosmic battle between good and evil is based on Eastern Religions which bring a
false worldview into the church.
God is allowing certain events to happen
as a judgment on His people and as a method of drawing His people closer to Himself.
The Father has begun separating the wheat from the chaff in these days of
difficulty and persecution.
As far as the battle goes, what we must ask
ourselves is, "Are we going to join and do the work that God appoints for
us to do like the faithful in Jerusalem did, or are we going to walk away, and
turn our backs on what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us?"
I have been trying to show you that the world
is not the same place as it was when so many of us were younger. You don't need
me to point that out. All you have to do is turn to accurate reporting from
independent sources, and you can see for yourself. I have mentioned that we are
now living in a Negative world when it comes to how the culture views
Christians and Christianity.
What scares me, is the reaction of many church
leaders today to this fact. Too many leaders reject the teaching of the Bible
as reliable truth when it tells us that we will suffer as followers of Christ.
The world hated Jesus, so why should we expect any different treatment for
those who call themselves Christian?
Instead, church leaders are doing different
things to try and be more appealing to culture and to be less offensive. Listen,
my friends, the message of the Gospel is offensive. The lost think that we are
all basically good, and we just need a little guidance, a little counselling to
get back on the right track. Not that there is anything wrong with counselling.
It is useful when applied properly. The problem is that the world tries to
apply counselling to things that it was never meant to fix. What we need is
Jesus! We need to stop being embarrassed about what God's Word teaches and
start telling people about Jesus!
Turn with me in your Bibles to today's passage
and let's look together at what God's Word has to say to us today.
And God’s Word says…
READ NEHEMIAH 4:1-15
Before we get too deep into the
points of this morning's message, I want to point out something a little
technical from this passage we just read. It is important to identify who is
speaking in the text and keep that in the front of your mind as you read. I
often say, that when you are reading a passage, you need to identify the pronouns
to know who is saying what.
In verse one and the first part
of verse two, we see the author of the book is speaking. Nehemiah is speaking
in the third person. In the second half of verse two, we see that Sanballat
speaks. In verse three, Tobiah begins to speak and add his two cents.
In verse four, we see that
Nehemiah is once again speaking. Not just speaking but offering up prayer to
God. In verse ten we hear from the people in Judah and the city of Jerusalem in
particular. Verse eleven goes back to the enemies of Sanballat, Tobiah and
others speaking. In verse 12 we hear from Jewish people living in the northern
part of the territory, which was where the town of Horron was located and where
the Ammorites lived. Finally in verse thirteen and to the end of this morning's
passage, we see that Nehemiah is once again speaking. If you were not paying
attention to these matters, it would seem like the enemies of God were praying
for assistance in verse four. Pay attention to who is speaking, or else it is
easy to get things twisted when you read scripture.
Alright, last week we examined
how the work was divided among the people. Families stepped up and began to
accept responsibility for a section of the wall and they began the work. We saw
how people travelled from other parts of the former Kingdom of Judah to
participate in the rebuilding work. We also saw that people from all walks of
life joined in the work. It wasn't left to just the professionals or those who
were most experienced in wall repair. Everyone participated to a greater or
lesser degree.
This morning we see that the
minute word of the real work got out, enemies rose up and attempted to
interfere with God's work. Of course, there are enemies to God's work.
The primary enemy against God's
work is Satan. We need to be aware of Satan, but not to obsess about him or to
inflate his powers. The Bible tells us that he is the prince of this world.
This is not to say that he rules
the world completely; God is still sovereign. But it does mean that God, in His
infinite wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world within the
boundaries God has set for him. When the Bible says Satan has power over the
world, we must remember that God has given him domain over unbelievers
only. Believers are no longer under the rule of Satan. Unbelievers, on the
other hand, are caught "in the snare of the devil", they lie in the
"power of the evil one" and are in bondage to Satan.
So, when the Bible says that
Satan is the "god of this world," it is not saying that he has
ultimate authority. It conveys the idea that Satan rules over the unbelieving
world in a specific way. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, the Bible tells us the
unbeliever follows Satan’s agenda: "The god of
this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." I want you to listen
to me very carefully when I say this next sentence. That does not mean that
Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, cannot save your lost friends and
family. Jesus is the only one who can save them. Satan is the Father of
Lies, he will try and tell you that nothing can be done. They are lost, you
can't help them. These are lies, friends so don't you dare believe them.
Satan’s scheme includes promoting
false philosophies in the world—philosophies that blind the unbeliever
to the truth of the Gospel. Satan’s philosophies are the fortresses in which
people are imprisoned, and they must be set free by Christ.
An example of one such false
philosophy is the belief that man can earn God’s favour by a certain act or
acts. In almost every false religion, meriting God’s favour or earning eternal
life is a predominant theme. Earning salvation by works, however, is contrary
to biblical revelation.
When we read our Bibles, we learn
that Jesus Christ, a member of the Trinity, a divine being, accepted the task
from the Father, another member of the Trinity, to temporarily leave the
heavenly realm and to come to Earth as a human baby and walk among His
creation. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the last person of the Trinity,
Jesus added the attributes of humanity to His divine attributes.
Jesus did not stop being
God in order to become man. There is a fancy theological term for this that is
called "homeostasis" or the "homeostatic union". Names help
us to understand difficult concepts. Through the process of homeostasis, Jesus
added human attributes to His divine attributes to become fully man and fully
God at the same time. The Bible tells us that He did this so that He could face
every type of temptation that man faces and still remain sinless.
Jesus had to remain sinless to be
the only suitable permanent sacrifice that the Father would be willing to
accept on our behalf. For you see dear friends, when we fall prey to the lies
of the false religions and the false philosophies that tell us we can earn our
way to heaven, or that we are basically good people and just need a pep-talk to
straighten ourselves out, then we reject the gift of the work of Jesus. We feel
that we do not need help from anyone to get to God.
But, the Bible tells a different
tale. The Bible tells us that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags in the
eyes of the Father. There is nothing we can do to wash the stain of sin
of ourselves. We sang this morning the hymns telling us we were bought with a
price, we asked Jesus to cleanse us of our sins. Work that only Jesus can do on
our behalf. This work, when accepted by us in faith, becomes a work in our
lives known as Grace. It is the mercy of God alone, who extends this Grace to
His children. The deal is then sealed with the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.
As Believers, we have a person of the Trinity residing in each one of us.
It is the presence and work of
the Holy Spirit that allows us to read and understand God's Word. It is
the work of the Holy Spirit that convicts us of what the Word of God is saying
to us. Do you understand this valuable work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a
Believer? The Holy Spirit does not make us sinless. The Holy Spirit does not
stop us from sinning. We are not perfected yet as Believers. Jesus is our role
model and we are to try and live our lives as Jesus did, but He was perfect and
we are not. We are to try to be a little more like Jesus every day as an
improvement.
No, the Holy Spirit does not keep
us from sinning, instead, it convicts us of our sins when we do commit
them. That is the primary indicator between the lost and the Believer. The lost
barely acknowledge their sins against God, whereas the Believers should hate
when we slip. We should hate our sins and seek forgiveness from the Father. For
we were bought with a price, the shed blood of Jesus Christ on a Roman Cross
some two thousand years ago. A gift. So don't let the enemy tell you any
different.
The second group of enemies that
we will face are the external enemies. Turn with me back to today's passage and
let us look at two of the named enemies specifically. In Nehemiah 4, verse 1 we
read about Sanballat. We were introduced to Sanballat a month ago when we
looked at chapter two of Nehemiah, so I won't spend a lot of time now with him.
I will remind us that according to extra-biblical sources, Sanballat was a governor
of Samaira but Nehemiah refuses to give him that title in this book. Sanballat
represents the enemies which are external to the body of Christ. He was a
government official who was attempting to stand in the way of the work of God's
people. We see in the Book of Nehemiah that Sanballat tries several times ti
intimidate the people of God.
Despite having the blessing of
the King of the empire, we see a lesser magistrate attempting to thwart the
work of God; 's people. We see the same today. I can tell you numerous stories
of church work being interfered with in the City of Calgary when some street
churches have been feeding the homeless and destitute and trying to share the
Good News with these same people. We can feed them, we just can't tell them
about Jesus. The problem is when the church submits to this type of
interference from the government, the church is simply feeding people on their
way to hell.
This is what Satan wants. Satan
wants to neuter the work of the church here on earth. Satan has already lost,
he is a defeated foe. He cannot stop the work of God, he can only slow it down
and interfere with it by discouraging God's people. That is why we must keep
our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus and what His Word says and not what the
authorities tell us is acceptable. When the government and the Bible are in
conflict, we must follow the Bible and its teachings. We must be willing to
listen to the Holy Spirit and not Satan. This is why it is important for you to
be reading your bibles between Sunday mornings. It is through regular reading
and studying of God's Word that you will become familiar with His voice. That
is what we call discernment: the ability to be able to tell God's from all the
other noise in your life.
Most times, God will not shout to
be heard. The Holy Spirit speaks through the still small voice that we hear
when we read His word. The only way to become familiar with that voice is to
read and be still and listen for what Jesus and the Spirit are saying to you.
So, we will face external
enemies. But we also face another form of enemy and this last form may be the
most dangerous. We will face enemies from within the body of Christ. In this
morning's passage, Tobiah is an example of an enemy who is internal to the body
of Christ.
In verse 3, Tobiah is listed as an
Ammonite. The Ammonites were adversaries to the Israelites for some time in
their history. I think it is because the Ammonites thought that they too were a
people of Yahweh. You see the Ammonites trace their lineage back to the Lot.
Lot is mentioned as the nephew of Lot in Genesis 11:31. Lot plays a central
role in the account of Sodom and Gomorrah as told in Genesis 19.
In Genesis 19:36-38 we see the ancestor
of the Ammonites is mentioned. "36 So both of Lot’s daughters
became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a
son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The
younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father
of the Ammonites t of today." So, I think that because the Ammonites traced
their lineage back to Abraham's line, I think that Tobiah thought of himself as
equal to the Israelites and entitled to what they had as well.
Tobiah starts out as an outsider
here in the fourth chapter of Nehemiah. In verse three he mocks the efforts of
the faithful in Jerusalem. He says, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the
province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken
down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
But, by the time we read through the account
into Chapter 7, verse 61 and 62 Tobiah is trying to be accepted as a full-blood
Jew.
"61 The
following came up from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon and
Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended from Israel: 62 the
descendants of Delaiah, Tobiah and Nekoda." But we see in verse 64 that their claim was
rejected, "64 These searched for
their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the
priesthood as unclean."
But that's not the end of the
trouble with Tobiah. Turn with me to chapter thirteen of Nehemiah and let's see
what trouble Tobiah attempts to cause for the faithful in Jerusalem.
READ NEHEMIAH 13:1-9
"1
On that day
the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was
found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the
assembly of God, 2 because they had not met the Israelites with
food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God,
however, turned the curse into a blessing.) 3 When the people
heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
4 Before this, Eliashib the priest had
been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely
associated with Tobiah, 5 and he had provided him with a large
room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple
articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for
the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the
priests.
6 But while all this was going on, I
was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of
Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and
came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done
in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I
was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I
gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of
the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense."
This was a serious offence. Next week we are
going to skip ahead to chapter 8 in the Book of Nehemiah, so your homework this
week will be to read chapters 4,5,6, and seven so that you will be up to speed
for next Sunday.
One of the things that you will read is how
Sanballat tries to intimidate Nehemiah and scare him into seeking refuge and sanctuary
in the Temple. The problem is that Nehemiah is not a priest and therefore it
would be a sin for Nehemiah to do this. The very same sin that we just read
that Tobiah was guilty of because he too was found not to be from the lineage
of priests.
This is often the problem with the enemies who
walk among us, they often try to lead us into the sins that they are
committing. Sometimes it is done intentionally, sometimes it is done subconsciously.
Whether conscious or not, we must remain on guard against false teaching from
wherever it might originate and for whatever reason.
Nehemiah 4:11 warns us of this very thing, "11 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." We see that in Nehemiah's day, his enemies
walked amongst them. That is why the proper observance of what the Bible
teaches is so vitally important. What I mean by proper observance is the biblical
observance of the teachings and ordinances handed down to us by Jesus.
One of these observances is the
Lord's Supper,or Communion, or the Lord's Table. It is known by a few different
names depending on your church background. Here at Mountain View church we are
currently observing it once a month, usually on the third Sunday of the month.
CONCLUSION
So this morning we examined three
main classes or groups of enemies that the church will face in its work. We
have Satan and his minions, the enemies which are external to the Body of
Christ, and the enemies that we will find amongst us inside the church.
Of the three, I feel that the
last classification of an enemy is the most dangerous. The enemies that we find
amongst us inside the church are the most dangerous. I was just reading about a
study out of England regarding the Church of England. A committee from within
the Church of England has found that over the last ten years, across eleven
dioceses, the Church of England has become embarrassed about the word
"Church". During the last ten years, the new church, or
church-planting arm of the Church of England has gone out of its way to give
the new groups that it has formed various other names bedsides calling them a
"church". New church plants have instead been called "communities",
"congregations", "groups of worship", and even,
"groups for theological reflection", but not one of these new
"groups was called a "church".
In an attempt to become relevant
to the younger generations, the church is ridding itself of the very things
that make it attractive to these generations they are trying to attract. The
EMCC is also guilty of this. A couple of years back, on the official website of
the EMCC, the denomination began to use the term "followers of
Christ" because according to the website, the term "Christian"
came with "too much baggage".
Friends, whenever we begin to
think this way, we must never forget the words of Jesus as told to us in Mark
8:38, "38 If anyone is ashamed of me
and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be
ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
I'm sure these folks are doing it with the best
of intentions, but it is these very enemies which walk among us that we must be
most on guard against. Jesus warned of "wolves in sheep's clothing"
and false teachers who will try and lead us away to false gods.
The younger people I have spoken with, and by
younger, I mean those under 40, but even younger than that, namely those in
their twenties, are searching for structure and guidelines that culture has
failed to give them. They are searching for someone with the courage to tell
them the truth and point out the things that are wrong. Society has tried to
eliminate objective, independent truth. By doing this, society can then set the
rules for what is and what is not acceptable. The problem with that is then, we
get blown about by every whim.
Instead, we need to stand strong on the firm
foundation of the truths that are found in God's Word. We must trust the power
of the Gospel and present it in a truthful and honest manner in gentleness and
respect. Regardless if we offend someone when we do so. God will save them, not
you. We are just called to be the messengers.
Do not give the accuser the chance to accuse
you of being ashamed of Jesus Christ or the Gospel.
When we do face enemies, we need to pray and
remember the words of Nehemiah 4:14, "Don’t be afraid of them. Remember
the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and
your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
Let me close with this doxology.
24 “ ‘ “The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be
gracious to you;
26 may the Lord turn his face toward
you and give you peace."
Go in peace you are dismissed. Please join us downstairs for
coffee and treats.
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