Nehemiah 4: Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition | Pastor Dan Allen

it's an honor this morning to bring God's Word to you we are in the fourth chapter of Nehemiah so if you'll turn to your Old Testaments to that passage if you're a guest with us and you're using the pew Bible in front of you I believe that's page 311 311 as we begin this morning let's begin in prayers we should Heavenly Father it's been an amazing experience being in your presence this morning we have so sensed it we've experienced it personally and corporately as the body of Christ father thank you for teaching us for leading us father thank you for giving us the privilege and opportunity to honor and glorify you through our praise and our worship and now father we come to the the place where we open up your word your inspired Word Lord would you speak to us this morning each one of us personally individually as a church would your Holy Spirit father be the mouth of the peace for what you would have to teach us that we might apply it to our lives and be better willing servants for you it's in Christ's name we pray and all God's people said amen well today I want to talk to you on standing firm in the face of opposition I've provided you some notes this morning so you can follow along and might I say the guy up in the booth has been doing an incredible job this morning the advantage for you is all the blanks are already filled in don't you like that there you go so you can just listen you know we all face opposition at some time or the other while we journey through this thing called life it can manifest itself in discouragement and out in fear and sometimes yes even despair yet God is still calling a peep at this very hour to rebuild the broken walls of their lives and to stand firm in the face of opposition I was overwhelmed at the very end of the second service when one of our church members came up to me I had not met her before she said brother Dan she said and she was just in tears she said I prayed all the way over to church she says I'm going through some struggles this morning I just pray that God's Word would just speak to me this morning and give me some answers and give me some clarity about what I need to do that she said boy the Holy Spirit just hit me right to the heart because the message was exactly what I needed to hear and she says I need to stand firm in the face of opposition that I'm experiencing you know as the body of Christ we must determine what walls need to be rebuilt as we have displayed for you back here Russell did a magnificent job last Sunday and explaining where we are and where we're going and these these are walls that need to be built but there's also other walls there's there's other stones that need to be placed in the wall still and you and I are being called on as the body of Christ to be the ones to stand in that gap but as we do know that whenever the people of God start doing the work of God there will be opposition Nehemiah was God's man to lead his people to stand firm in the face of opposition and to be victorious I'm glad that God is in the business of working through his people to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks and God prepared and positioned Nehemiah to accomplish one of the Bible's impossible tasks of the Old Testament as Nehemiah talked to God a plan began began to take form in Nehemiah's mind about his own role in rebuilding the city wall and here's a statement that you can write down and you can take it to the bank when God's people attempt to do God's work in God's Way there will always be opposition opposition from this world and opposition from the spiritual darkness of this world the Bible records this fact history confirms it repeatedly the enemies of God will do everything in their power to impede God's purposes the enemy will not sit idly by and allow God's people and himself to receive glory or permit his people to experience victory without a fight now we've seen that following the remarkable successes recorded in the first three chapters of Nehemiah we saw where Nehemiah had his prayers answered from the burden that was placed in his heart for his kinsmen and for his City back in Jerusalem for getting royal permission to return to Jerusalem being granted all the government resources authority and protection and then of course the enthusiastic response from his own countrymen we come to the point in chapter 4 where Nehemiah begins to detail a severe crisis in the attempt to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem sanballat Tobiah and Geshem that we learned about in chapter 2 were the ones that incited their followers to oppose the reconstruction effort and as the human enemies of God ridiculed God's people and plotted against them dark spiritual forces attempted to stop the work by filling God's people with discouragement and fear and Nehemiah is the one is the leader that stands firm in the face of opposition and I will tell you that he he demonstrated remarkable leadership skills in keeping the work force focused and faithful God not only teaches us how to persevere in the face of intense antagonism in an opposition but more importantly he teaches us how opposition can become a tool or resource in his hands to make his people stronger in their quest to do his will did you understand that principle there that God becomes we become a tool in the hands of God to make us stronger in our quest to follow his plan and purpose for our lives first point that I want to turn our attention to is what is our reaction to opposition well let's look at how Nehemiah and those reacted chapter 4 verses 1 through 12 when sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he became furious he mocked the Jews before his colleagues and the powerful Menace Ameria and said what are these pathetic Jews doing can they restore it by themselves will they offer sacrifices will they ever finish it can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble then tobiah the ammonite who has beside him said indeed even if a fox climbed up what they are building he would break down their stone wall and then Nehemiah he goes to God and he says listen our God for weird despised make their insults return on their own heads and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity do not cover their guilt or let their sin be erase from your sight because they have provoked your builders and so we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people had the will to keep working when sanballat to buy on the Arabs the ammonites and the astra knights heard that the repair to the walls of jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed they became furious they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion so we prayed to our God in station of guard because of them day and night in verse 10 and Judah it was said the strength of the labourer fails since there are so much rubble we will never be able to rebuild the wall and our enemy said they won't know or see anything until we're among them and can kill them and stop the work when the Jews who live nearby arrived they said to us time and time again everywhere you turn they attack us God's enemies begin to ridicule the work of God and the first floor of first 6 verses and their attempt to discourage the workers we see some valid and Tobiah taking the lead they were deeply disturbed when they heard that a man wanted to help the people of Jerusalem in Chapter two and to come back and help to lead them to rebuild the wall around the city in chapter 2 verse 19 it says they you scorn an intimidation to prevent the work from even starting and now in chapter 4 as the work has begun they were furious and that word in the Hebrew really is a word that it means more of indignation alright they were indignant at the audacity of these feeble Jews to try and rebuild the wall and the nature of their discouraging attack is very evident in these verses they used a very mocking sarcastic tone they mocked the Jews these feeble Jews they asked questions will they will they rebuild this wall an observation that even if they even if a fox goes up on top of the wall he'll break down their stone wall meaning that it's so poorly built and then they ask the question will they sacrifice has the idea will they seek God through sacrifice and expect him to miraculously build the walls will they pray the walls up will they ever finish it has the idea do they have any idea what they are taking on because this isn't an easy project nor is the project behind us as a church it's going to take months and months of communication it's going to take months and months of unity it's going to take months and months of faithfulness towards God to see what God is going to unfold for us and like most attacks of discouragement there's always just a little trace of truth in the words of the enemy as the builders the Jews were feeble they were weakened people at this time coming out of Exile they didn't have the best materials to work with and after all they were being led by a cup bearer you see a line discouraging a attack will often have some truth in it but it will also neglect the or truth and this is the truth that I want you to learn this morning the difference between you and me and Nehemiah was that Nehemiah believed in the sovereignty and the providence of God you see God was with them and has promised to see them through the destiny of the Jewish people were in the hands of God this is how we learn from the amaya how to stand firm in the face of opposition now discouragement often comes to criticism and we've known through our experience that critics often run with critics one measure of a strong leader is to be able to measure that criticism to not allow it to be run down by the critical while still being sensitive to God's voice even in the midst of that criticism what Tobiah was one who made a mistake and in all the years of of reading through the book of Nehemiah I really never caught this but did you see where he called the wall there Stonewall you see it wasn't their wall at all it was God's wall right and so in essence he wasn't criticizing Nehemiah or criticizing the Jews who was he criticizing he was criticizing God he was criticizing God's work and so when you stand in opposition to others when they're criticizing you no more often times than that they're opposing God's work in your life critics who bring nothing but discouragement often miss what God is doing now because Nehemiah and the workers did in fact have legal protection from the king you remember back in chapter 2 verse 7 letters were handed to him they were given the authority to to actually go and start the work and so Sanballat and Tobiah really had no authority to actually stop the work all they could do was to discourage the Jews by hindering their work and did you know that the exact same attack comes into the life of every believer who is legally set free by his King yet they can be discouraged into going back from what God has set before them many of us who have been freed from the shackles of sin because of what Christ did on the cross for us have drawn back and have independently put ourselves back in the shackles of sin not experiencing the victorious life you see we work differently under faith versus under discouragement we prayed differently under faith versus under discouragement we read and hear the word of God under faith differently than under discouragement it's no wonder that Satan works so hard to keep us from applying our faith and paralyzing to us in the discouragement the author of Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38 through 39 says but my righteous one will live by faith and if he draws back I have no pleasure in him but we are not those who draw back on our destroyed but those who have faith and obtain life so how did Nehemiah respond how should you and I then respond well in verses 4 & 5 you saw where Nehemiah comes against the discouraging attack with prayer he didn't debate about it he didn't form a committee he didn't even deal with the two enemies directly instead he took it to God in prayer you see for Nehemiah prayer was a first resort resource not a last resort when times of opposition come God wants us to rely upon him first and completely and the purest way of expecting expressing our reliance on God is through prayer through prayer our talking and our listening to God we were so overjoyed that yesterday morning more than 50 of our members of our church gathered together as the church's prayer partners to pray for the work of the church and many are back in the counseling rooms right now as we sit here in the worship service praying for the work of God you see in his prayer and Nehemiah first asked for God's attention and his mercy Nehemiah then asked God to battle their enemies for them he depended upon God to fight the battle and God gave Nehemiah a work to do and he would not be distracted from it but then finally Nehemiah Sprayer gave God a reason to show mercy and to come against his enemy because Nehemiah recognized that this was God's cause not his own so in essence they had provoked the God of the universe because it is his work and what is the result well we see that in verse 6 the work continues with greater strength God answered their prayer by giving them all a mind to work now this is a reference to the will a mine to work is actually a gift from God and no significant job will ever be accomplished until God's people come together in unity and a sense of God's purpose with a mind to work my favorite epistle in the New Testament is the Epistle of Philippians and the Bible speaks to this in Philippians chapter 2 verses 2 through 5 when you and I is Christ believers are instructed to cultivate the mind of Christ which includes unity and humility and selflessness all exhibited by Nehemiah and I pray for our church in the days ahead in the months ahead that we will exhibit as a body of Christ all unity humility and selflessness as we serve one another and as we serve God through our actions you see this is exactly what Satan wants to attack destroy with his attacks he wants to attack the mind to work he wants to make us feel defeated or passive or self focused or self dependent or discouraged that's why the Apostle Paul reminds us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and to do that daily critics demoralize leaders encourage and when the critic spoke the workman heard them and they were demoralized and too often we allow the critics in our lives to determine our agenda rather than allowing God to set in to control our but when the capable leader steps up and says let's look at this thing God's way let's look to God let's keep on keepin on let's get back in there and finish the work that God has for us to do then the people become faithful you see the immediate answer to the prayer made no difference in the enemies the prayer was answered in the people of God doing the work Nehemiah's prayer asked God to take care of his enemies and God answered him how by taking care of his own people and you and I often miss this brothers and sisters in Christ we often miss God's answer to our prayers because generally we pray for him to do a work in the lives of others that were in conflict with and he answers by what by moving into our own lives our response usually then is to resist that movie it's as if God tried to give us a mind to work in a situation but we resisted him and because we did we missed out on his blessing here in chapter 4 the work has now become half finished it was an exciting work but it also was a dangerous time because much had been done but much was left to do and here's where fatigue and discouragement were ready to set in if given an opportunity so God's enemies they escalate things and they now plan to lead a violent attack against the work and so in verses 7 and 8 you see this conspiracy by the enemy to attack the work the wall was only half as high as it should be but it was almost continuous around the city now except for perhaps a few gaps and therefore the enemies and what they saw of the work they became furious and as the work progressed the enemies became more and more serious notice they they didn't simply mock or complain they began to plan and threaten for violence this was serious because the wall was built to protect against the attack of violence and now it seemed that the very building of the wall may actually prompt the attack it would have been easy for the people of Israel at this particular time to fear and to think perhaps all their work was for naught you know an important strategy of Satan is to create fear and confusion as the scripture says among the people of God but where there is a vision and a plan and where is there where there is a mind to work then God will accomplish what he needs to do through his people confuse people however will never move forward and fulfill God's work they're usually confused because they're distracted by the enemy's tricks instead of focusing on God and his promises and so what Nehemiah does in verse nine is he defends the attack by watchful prayer you see nothing would make them stop depending on God through prayer over and over and over again haven't you seen that the best resource the most powerful resource at Nehemiah and the people of God had at their hands was what it was prayer you see a lot God allowed the criticism and the fear of the attack to go on even though he could have just instantly swept it away but God allowed it to continue because he was delighted that through this process his people were drawing closer to him with a deeper trust than ever before God did his perfect work both in building the walls around the city as well as the walls of his people and this is what adversity can accomplish in our lives if we accept it and we learn from it it will always draw us closer to an intimate walk with Christ besides the people use their sanctified common sense to do what they could do protecting against the attack while using willing servants of God to be the wall until the wall was built the people stood in the gap and I believe unlike any other time in recent history God is calling on the people of McGregor Baptist Church to stand in the gap we will stand firm we will stand the gap are you with us are you with us then repeat this after me we will stand firm we will stand in the gap we will stand firm we will stand in the gap that's what the days and the months ahead looks like when we see an area of our Christian life that needs particularly it isn't just enough to pray you need to set a watch as well give special attention and accountability to the areas of our lives until we are walking in constant victory as a church you see our prayers do not replace our actions prayers make our actions more effective for God's work and this shows that Nehemiah was determined he wouldn't let the security of daylight or the sleepiness of night keep him from the work and this sent a powerful message to his enemies and also to his people in essence he's saying we're committed to it this is going to succeed because God is with us and he will enable us to overcome every obstacle that is put in our way more importantly it demonstrated their faithfulness to God in essence the people of God were saying we trust in you God and our faith is a living faith a faith of actions not just words we love and trust you in all things we look to the sovereign God who is providential in this work but then in verse 10 through 12 we suit we see two challenges arise we first see an internal challenge and then an external challenge verse 10 is an interesting verse because it mentions the tribe of Judah Judah was supposed to be the blessed in ruling tribe of all of Israel it was the tribe of great kings and ultimately the Messiah himself and so it was a special challenge in the discouragement to have this word come from the tribe of Judah it would almost be like like hearing discouragement coming from the leadership of this church but I can tell you in meetings that we've had over the months your your leaders are right there on board they are leading the charge they're leading the church God is working through them they are standing unified and they are standing firm and we are appreciative of that you see Nehemiah the Jews rebuilding Jerusalem have been standing strong in the face of opposition but now that the rebuilding of the wall is at the halfway point special challenges arise fatigue sets in you know it isn't enough just to begin well I watch a lot of Saturday college football wasn't what I did yesterday brother John you and I had another work to do many a team has had a great first half only to lose in the final minutes you see the rebuilding work has gone very well and many obstacles have been overcome so far but the job isn't done yet the game isn't over yet there is still time to lose or to win and the work of rebuilding the walls was not just the construction of the walls themselves but cleaning and hauling away the rubbish now I'm not a construction guy I'm not a builder anything but I do know this if you go on a piece of property and there's a heap of rubbish and trashing everything before you can actually ever build a foundation of wall what have you got to do first you've got to clear that rubbish away right well here was the indictment from Nehemiah's people they said Nehemiah you're clearing away that the rubbish you're actually just making a clear path for the enemy to come in to attack us you say but that had to be done first and they were vulnerable at that time but there had to be a trust in what God was going to do the heart of the people is shown in verse 10 must have been a discouragement for Nehemiah because it's easy to lead when your followers are full of enthusiasm and have a heart to work but what do you do when that begins to fade well verse 11 the challenge from the outside the enemies now plan a surprise attack but what they did not know is that God would intervene in in there in his people's prayers through a warning because the enemies didn't realize that there were people of God that were outside of the walls that overheard the attack plans and they took the plans to Mia Nehemiah and the people inside the wall now they were panicked I mean they they said over and over they're gonna attack us they're gonna attack us but when they look to Nehemiah they saw that he was not panicked you see often attacks from the adversary are successful only if they come as a surprise but when God's people are on guard the enemy sees little victory the Apostle Paul reminds us in first Corinthians 16:13 be alert stand firm in the faith act like a man be strong and this is a wonderful example of the power and the goodness of God when he intervenes in this way so what is Nehemiah's response well let's read verses 13 through 18 point number two 13 through 18 so i stationed people behind the lowest sections of the wall at the vulnerable areas i stationed them by families were their swords spears and bows after i made an inspection i stood up and said to the nobles the officials and the rest of the people don't be afraid of them and here i love this verse remember the great and awe-inspiring lord and fight for your countrymen your sons and daughters your wives and homes when our enemies realize that we knew their scheme and that God had frustrated it every one of us returned to his own work on the wall and from that day on half of my men did the work while the other half held Spears shields bows and armor the officers supported all the people of Judah who were rebuilding the wall and the laborers who carried the loads worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other each of the builders had his sword strapped around his waist while he was building and the trumpeter was beside him you see Nehemiah's response to the opposition is to organize the defense now these verses tell us what Nehemiah did but we can also think about what Nehemiah could have done in this situation he could have done nothing which is what a lot of churches might do could have been very spiritual about it well brother we're just trusting in the Lord we prayed about it and believe the Lord is going to deliver us somehow and then they just sit back and wait neum I could have panicked started thinking that it was his job alone to defend against the attack but what he did was to wisely and calmly trust God in the midst of the storm and to do the concrete things that God would have him to do to obtain the victory you see Nehemiah commanded them to bring out the armor it was now time to get serious to put on the full armor and to get ready to fight with every resource that they had remember the grade and inspire all inspiring Lord Nehemiah proclaims he put their mind in the right perspective the challenge was great but there was no reason to fear because he who was in them is greater than he who was in the world Nehemiah reminded them what they were fighting for and you and I need to be reminded that we fight most effectively for the Lord when we keep in mind how much there is to lose in the kingdoms work and so what we see is the enemies shrinking back in verse 15 it says once they saw the defenses of the people of God the enemies shrunk back now what they had hoped to achieve was the people of God just simply handed over you know their weapons and everything handing over the victory on a silver platter by failing to watch and to be ready and some might think that this was the victory defending against the attack was not the victory the people of God would not be at peace and would not be at security until the full wall was rebuilt getting on with the work was the victory now listen when we are under spiritual attack it is easy to feel like that just enduring the storm is the victory it isn't the attack often comes to prevent your progress in my progress for the work of the Lord the victory is enduring the attack and then continuing the progress and the work of the Lord that is when we receive God's largest blessings and we see in verse 16 through 18 that Nehemiah arms his men and they're ready and they're working you see this picture of his people standing with some kind of weapon in one hand and in a trowel a trowel in another a trowel that is used to take the semen and and to put the blocks together to build the wall it's very much like the kingdom of God is built with both the sword and a trowel the sword which is the word of God that we have to come against every spiritual force of wickedness and the trial in our hand that is the Holy Spirit the work of the Holy Spirit within us to do the work of building up the people of God as we finish this chapter you'll see in verses 19 through 23 that after nehemiah's response to the work he makes a rien verse 19 then I said to the nobles the officials and the rest of the people the work is enormous and spread out and we are separated far from one another along along the wall whenever you hear the trumpets sound rallied to us there our God will fight for us so we continued the work while half of the men were holding Spears for daybreak until the Stars came out at that time I also said to the people let everyone in this servant spend the night inside Jerusalem so that they can stand guard by night and work by day and I my brothers my men in the guards with me never took off our clothes each carried his weapon even when washing so what Nehemiah does is he briefs the people to maintain a ready defense in the work that God had called them to do he in essence was reminding them that we will stand firm that our God we'll fight for us and Nehemiah reminds them in verse 20 he reminds the people of the sovereignty of God and you and I as Christians today need to be armed with the same attitude today we need to be always ready always clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ always wearing the armor of God ready for that final trumpet blast that will gather us together with our Lord the Apostle Paul in Ephesians six 10 through 18 says finally be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the devil for our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the world powers of this darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens and this is why you must take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having prepared everything to take your stand twice in this passage standing firm is mentioned so pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer requests and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints this passage reminds us that perseverance in the Christian life is a ceaseless warfare against the forces of the kingdom of darkness Christian's therefore need to be reminded to expect hardships not to be surprised by them and to expect persecution and not be surprised by it and not to be dismayed by it jesus promised us in his words that in this world you will have tribulation the Apostle Paul says to young Timothy suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus and he also said all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted and then James says that he gave the good news that such tribulation produces spiritual endurance so my brothers and sisters in Christ we are in these days and in the days ahead to stand firm in the face of opposition to ask God what he wants to teach you and me through these circumstances to allow him to shape our character and and to give us a capacity for future service so that we can be a blessing to others and be a blessing to God we're to rejoice in the presence of God in our circumstances and trust in this providential hand and our reaction in our response to adversity will determine whether our troubles will curse us or bless us if we stand firm in the face of opposition and meet the adversity as Nehemiah did we will have nothing to lose but everything to gain will you stand

Channel: McGregor Baptist Church

Views: 23,070

Rating: 4.7104073 out of 5

Keywords: mcgregor baptist church, Book Of Nehemiah (Religious Text)

Id: BAhrGRxvCxU

Length: 36min 1sec (2161 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2015