Nehemiah 5:1-13 - Satan's Attack From Within

now we open our Bibles this morning to Nehemiah chapter 5 in 606 BC the Lord had allowed the Babylonians to come in and begin to besiege the city of Jerusalem the place that he had put his name where the Jews had gathered to worship their God and he had worn them for over 325 years of how idolatry would ruin them they didn't listen and God sent them into captivity 700 miles away under a babylonian world power that in reality did nothing but worship idols that experienced those seven years would would drive out of the heart of the jews idolatry in 536 when the Lord had told them they would allow them to go back to Jerusalem a ruler named Cyrus who had was the first ruler and the medo-persian empire that had overthrown the Babylonian said of the Jews go home but only fifty thousand of the millions that were in Babylon did and when they got home they built the foundation of the place of worship the only place they could worship God approached God and they didn't even finish that they got busy building their own places and all the Lord said some prophets 20 years later the place of worship was finished but that was that so 91 years after they had returned there was still no wall still no Street still no honor still no safety there was really nothing there for the people to return to it was then that God began to speak to a young man's heart nehemiah who lived 700 miles away lived in in the palace of the king wanted very much to go and remedy that situation that God broke his heart with it he he couldn't think of anything else he'd never been there but he had heard about the suffering and we looked at how God calls a man to a work and how it can affect the nation in the first couple of chapters of the book of Nehemiah the amaya prayed made himself available waited four months for anything to even begin to crack open for him and in those four months what if I could go what would I need and when the King finally discovered what his desire was they asked him a lot of questions he had all of the answers and he was allowed to go spent three months traveling there spent several days praying and walking around what he I'm sure looked a whole lot worse than he probably imagined but the Lord gave him a vision he gathered the town together he shared all that God had been at doing and to get him to that point and the people rallied let's build thank the Lord that he sent you that God has done this work and immediately there was opposition that continued to grow even as the wall began to be built the people built an earnest they got to it with great effort they had a mind to work and and the enemy began by mocking and speaking and belittling their work but by the time I got to being halfway finished virtuous verse 6 of chapter 4 something more ominous hit the the market the enemy decided when belittling didn't work maybe threats would work and they began to send messages even through the very people that we're building the wall where you know we're gonna we're gonna get the drop on you you won't see it coming we're gonna kill you and now the people had another fear to deal with you know now the threat was personal and the cost had had arisen and we told you as we've gone through these these verses that God's work has always done in opposition you know you're in the world not really God's place right now in that regard and yet he's building a kingdom but when Jesus said in the world you're gonna have tribulation he means it it would have been nicer I guess Evita said you might have or it's possible you could run into something but he just flat-out declared you're gonna have tribulation and you will trying to accomplish the will of God you're gonna have opposition the best work of God is done while there's an opposing force so the people continue to build they had a mind to work in a heart that would pray and they began to set a watch and and a just work areas and and we ended last week at the end of chapter 4 with a message entitled never leave the building for the battle you yes there's a battle but the focus should be on what we're doing right up on what the opposition is and so you know we talked about halfway done and how the discouragement came and how you could lose strength and lose vision and lose confidence and the threats didn't help this morning we'd like to look at the first thirteen verses of chapter five because it is it is one more domino in this in this insight that the Lord gives us into what we can expect to face as we go forward to serve the Lord the wall is more than halfway done the people are are overcoming even the threats of the enemy because we read in the last chapter when the enemy found out that that we were in on their plots they returned and they quit making that as a plot verse 15 I think of the last chapter but but here comes the Latin next ploy of Satan and it is probably his greatest tool in terms of turning against God's work of building the walls of people's lives and it almost stopped the work entirely up to now in what we've read everything that has come against the work has come from outside it has been the the growing opposition of you know a couple of guys and a bunch more than an army of folks and and with ever-increasing kind of pressure but all of the pressure had come from without if you will and that had caused great unity in the people of God they work together they watched over each other's back they were armed while other people work there was a trumpet that would sound you know everybody had a call to arms and all and they were able to kind of bind the other the pressure from without brought unity as it most often does but this pressure in these thirteen verses this attack came from within and the enemy now uses what might be his best tool because it divides it separates and when it comes to God's people it isolates people and then they're more easily overthrown so we run into this this section where there's lots of internal dissension there's lots of selfishness and and ungodliness it produces this hatred and strife in the camp it leads to side choosing and line drawing and and Satan's victory dance at least for the moment it couldn't be uglier but it almost worked you know that old saying we have met the enemy and it's us it should not be true in the church not amongst God's people and and though we need I think biblically to be exclusively committed to a local body for ministry and accountability we should never exclude the work that God is doing in other places over the last couple of decades much of the the upheaval in the church has come over things that that we could almost categorize as methods right there's always a lot of internal dissension about methodology the kind of music that you that you use is worship the does the worship leader wear a tie why does he have Levi's on that's not very respectful or even to the point where there is lots of divisions about church emphases of ministry we have a church near us that is completely devoted to missions the church is not large but they spend literally and raise millions of dollars getting words out to places that no one would like to go they do really good work and they are constantly being criticized but it isn't it is definitely a work of God that that we should applaud but yet because of the method or this time the emphasis there's a lot of fighting I think the only fighting that you're allowed to do biblically is over essential doctrines James says contend for those the faith once and for all delivered to the Saints but but that's one of the enemy's great works against you and I going out into the world and sharing the gospel with people that are lost you know when it comes to internal dissension Satan doesn't take anybody's side he just supplies ammunition to both sides Paul when he wrote to the in Chapter five said that we've been called to Liberty but we shouldn't use our Liberty as an opportunity of our flesh instead we should love one another interesting way to put it he said all of the Word of God or the laws fulfilled in this one were to love your neighbor here's how bad he said if you bite and if you devour one another beware that you were not consumed one of another or literally the work that God would like to do in the group cannot be done when the group is disintegrating from the dead in fact he ends in chapter 5 verse 16 of Galatians and he said look just walk in the spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh so here comes Nehemiah and he's he's gone through a lot you know and and here the the work of his hands and the vision that God has given them and the people that God has surrounded him with the work is almost disabled by the discord that is being sown by the father of discord we read in Revelation 12 John writing that he had heard a voice in heaven about the accuser of the Brethren who sits before the Lord the night and day accusing you that's his that's his greatest effort that says that's his preoccupation point out to the Lord your failures your shortcomings and if you can get you to point each others out all the better the work stops the internal struggle and fight has begun it's a dangerous proposition have you ever been tripped up in their service of the Lord because of what someone around you did or said or didn't say oh you know I used to serve but that guy or that woman or those people or that church and so I I stopped entirely and I have a great justification for it but in the end you call your justification now you're doing nothing you've been waylaid you've been sidelined you've been tripped up Satan knows how to destroy he's good at it Soloman all of his wisdom in in chapter 6 of Proverbs said this six things does the Lord hate no seven things are an abomination to him a proud look a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood hearts that will devise evil plans feet that will quickly run to do evil a false witness who will lie and he that sews discord amongst the brethren what does the Lord hate that because it effectively stops the work of God in the church to which he has chosen and through whom he has chosen to take his word to the world be careful of the enemy's ploy you don't want to become his tool his vessel through whom he cannot stop the work of God sometimes the complaints are level against the overseer Paul when he wrote in Hebrews chapter 13 says obey those that have the rule over you submit yourselves as those who are gonna have to give an account so that they can give it with joy and not with grief that would be unprofitable for you it's difficult we hear people questioning others motives grumbling and backbiting seem to be gifts of the Spirit not the Holy Spirit just of the Spirit complaining but I'll tell you I'll tell you what none of those things in any kind of a measuring stick proceed from the throne of God they are all traps of the enemy be careful that you don't become a pawn in the enemy's hands to destroy let me tell you what I've heard lately the music's too loud too loud the place is too cold place is too hot can we change the dinner on Wednesday night I don't like tacos could you please not have that speaker come back we didn't like him I'll give you a whole list of things I've heard but let me say this to you I haven't heard that directly from anyone I hear it through others pastors and get to my wife you tell her she won't listen she's good a thing to tell somebody else I want division it is it is the work of the devil and it almost worked here I'd love to teach it to you but I don't think we have time now no I'll speed it up here verse one and there was a great outcry of the people in their wives against their Jewish brethren for there were those who said we our sons and our daughters are many therefore let us get grain that we might eat and live and there are also those who said we have mortgaged our lands and our vineyards and our houses so that we can buy grain because of the famine and then there were those who said we've borrowed money for the Kings taxes on our lands and vineyards yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren our children as their children and indeed we are forcing our sons and daughters into being slaves and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery it is not in our power to redeem them for other men now have our lands and our vendors and then Nehemiah writes I was very angry when I heard this outcry and these words well here's the situation in the midst of building this wall there was a famine verse 3 it I added to the sacrifices that everyone was already making to work on the wall the laborers were already put out some families were large verse 2 they had difficulty getting enough food to feed everyone the situation was becoming desperate verse 3 tells us there the property owners had mortgaged their lands some of them just to get an food to eat the Kings taxes art exert Nehemiah's boss had levied taxes against the land that was very difficult to pay and again it had caused people to come to the end of themselves and then there were these farmers that we read about last week who had left their homes and farms to come stay in town to get the work done they had sacrificed their income true stream for a while because the work of God said before them as a result verse 5 the people who were being enslaved for their inability to pay their lands were being seized their children sold into slavery and this was a hopeless situation but here's the problem the the people that were taking the advantage of it were their own brethren verse 1 the the anger 2 was turned against those who are feathering their own nets at the nest I should say at the expense of others we see it in our country sometimes there's a disaster somewhere and all of a sudden room rates double and gasoline prices skyrocket that's that's unjust it's people taking advantage of other people's suffering it leads to division and mistrust and and and and difficulty that we saw in these latest rounds of of these horrible you know storms out of the Gulf that that people were looting houses and breaking into people's businesses using the suffering of some to gain for themselves and that's what was going on here there was strain and now the strain was even worse this united service and they had been united through thick and thin through five chapters or four through four chapters I mean everything had driven them together let's watch each other's backs and you work and I'll and I'll guard you and we'll stay in at night keeping out on the property and all I will make sure that the the walls don't get taken down there was a lot of unity until now and here the the sin of a few threatens to destroy the whole work that God had begun the crisis was real the emotions ran high and it was horrible but it was Satan's next work his ploy all division in the body of Christ is caused by someone who is looking out only for themselves always a true disciple avoids it Jesus said you want to follow me die die to yourself you want to come after me deny yourself pick up your cross follow me so the believer is not going to find himself engaged in those things if he's following the Lord but here's this ongoing war because there's some selfish individuals in the midst of the church and as the enemy gets to them rather than unity is division you you can see it in what we went through in the in the Gospel of John we pointed it out for months by how the disciples constantly were arguing about who the greatest was gonna be even a couple of them you know brought their mom into it right who can say no to mom well Jesus had no tomorrow but but in any event there was always that striving to try to push each other ahead and so what the enemy could not do in stopping this work through verbal ridicule or physical threat he now seeks to do through selfishness in the hearts of those who are in in the ranks and and you you read this and on a practical level you might say well that's a church so I'm gonna leave the problem is you'll have to go to another church and you'll have the same enemy fighting the same bat it's just the way the enemy works so we need to be sure that we're fighting against the right enemy we have people sometimes that come in for marriage counseling that are quite frankly you just listen and you go I don't know I'm gonna do this but literally a husband and wife will come in and they're they're both packing with information on each other and I here's what I've started doing I'd say to the husband so tell me 10 verses in the Bible that mean the most to you and very few times can they come up with Ken but they'll spend three hours telling you what's wrong with her back in 1987 it began 87 stick with me pastor in 1992 there that you could leave the room have lunch play golf come back they'd still be talking and then to be hurt or it'll be the same thing wrong enemy because the enemy comes to divide notice in verse six that that nehemiah is just furious one disaster after another can you blame him quit might be the best movie could make the people had turned their hearts against God's clear word in this room in this regard and they were moving away from the protection that God had given them through their fact that they had been obeying God and we're now exploding exposing themselves to the fact that they they'd stepped away from God's Word and we're now hanging out there with the enemy and now they're sitting ducks now they're in trouble as this awesome work of God is under where the enemy is at work as well and he finds a crack in the fellowship self-service gossip an individual and it's a wide crack indeed the law was very cleared about how you handle people that were suffering in your midst Exodus 22 said if you lend money ten of the people who are poor among you make sure you don't become a money lender that you begin to charge interest Deuteronomy chapter 23 said if you're gonna charge injures to your brother on their food or their their clothing or the land don't you do that as a child of God Leviticus chapter 25 says the same thing it's all over the Bible you got to help your own you got to take care of your people you're not supposed to be profiting at their expense for their plight and for their difficulty it was God's plan Nehemiah was angry that his people those that he had been teaching were now so quickly ignorant of and willing to obey what God has said and this little leaven was getting in and it was affecting the entire work look it's the same thing in the in the New Testament you go to the end of chapter 4 of Ephesians and and Paul writes you should be kind to one another and tender-hearted and forgiving one another even as Christ has forgiven you and be imitators of Christ the fruit of the Spirit putting on the new man esteeming others better than ourselves provoking one another to love and good works it doesn't just say provoking one another I've got to read the next line quite distinct from those who sow discord and become tools of the enemy so really whose tool are you the enemy will seek to attack the church from without but that usually produces unity it's true in cultures as well when 9/11 started became a reality for us the country came together for a couple of weeks tragedy has a way of solidifying allegiance but when the enemy comes to divide from within verse 7 tells us that Nehemiah being angry gave it some serious thought and I should tell you those three words ministered to me because when I get upset I don't give it any thought at all I speak first and think about it later Nehemiah is a good guy he doesn't explode he doesn't react he gives it some time but he's angry and then after serious thought he rebukes the the nobles and the rulers he says to them each one of you is exacting interest or you're easy from your brother and I called a great assembly against them he is slow to anger and slow to speak but he's prayerful and then he speaks up he doesn't ignore the problem and Nehemiah goes after the big shots I mean the nobles and the rulers he has the most to lose losing their support these are guys that that can turn the tide you know they have lots of influence their rulers there they're wealthy they're powerful they have deep pockets yet success comes when you court God not the powerful among you and Nehemiah did not compromise his faith he went after the people causing the problems he was only interested in pleasing the Lord and a good leader will stick to what God's ways are at any cost Paul said to the Thessalonians for such linear things chapter 2 you know God has entrusted us the gospel because we were not pleasing men but we want to please God who tries our hearts so from a worldly standpoint this was a dumb move right because you keep high profile people in your pocket you stay close to those who can do you a favor but the difficult part of leadership is is risking the law you know a loss of friendship nehemiah gives them a few things to think about let me read verse at 8 and 9 as well he said to them according to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who have sold were sold to the nation's now indeed will you even sell your brethren or should they be sold to us and they were silenced they had nothing to say and I said what you are doing is not good should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of our nation's and of our of the nation's and of their enemies now he says three things number one this is sin and he brings it out openly he calls them out look the world sells people into slavery we don't and they couldn't answer and then he said this aren't you afraid of the Lord aren't you moved by the fact that that we stand here doing a work that we need his protection and we've just moved ourselves out from under his protection and we've lost our distinction among our enemies we're acting just like the world now and we certainly can't get anything done that way whenever a a believer falls in the in the culture somebody who's confessed their faith everyone suffers the whole church suffers Peter wrote in his second epistle about the false teachers in the and he said there will be many who will follow their destructive ways and because of them the truth will be blaspheme when David heard from the Prophet about his sin and he was so glad to hear he wasn't going to die but the Prophet said David because of what you've done you've given great occasion to the enemy to blaspheme and they said because of that you're Charles gonna die the world's gonna know for me that I'm a just God but it was that that that exposure if you will what a believer Falls the world who's looking for hope loses any hope I heard a bus driver one time thought very interesting he he was giving his testimony driven a bus for thirty years in the city and he said there was always a van Julis guy that would get on the bus they knew him from television and all and he said before I got saved he said oh you know engagement conversation he said I finally this he'd tell me about the Lord and and I'd kindly I said I finally figured out I'm gonna put him to the test he said in everyday and when he got off the bus I gave him more change than he deserved he said he'd never gave it back the last pretty good test right there but but in any event Nehemiah is just furious and he calls them on the carpus he brings it out in the open he he deals with it no matter who these folks are he brings him to the point where they really got nothing to say and he brings in the fear of the Lord now that's good but but it's more than just finding out what's wrong you got to fix it and so in the next few verses Nehemiah gives the fix if you will verse 10 I also with my brethren and my servants I'm lending them money in grain please let us stop this charging of interest you restore to them even today their lands and vineyards their olive groves and homes and give them a hundreds of the money and the grain and the new wine and the oil that you've charged them and they said we will do restore it we will require nothing from them we will do as you say and so I called for the priests and required an oath of them that they should do what they promised and I shook out the folds of my garment I said so may God shake out every man from his house and his property who does not perform this promise even this may be shaken out and emptied and all of the assembly said Amen they praise the Lord and the people did according to the promise well here's the solution I like it verse 10 step 1 stop it I know really insightful knock it off doesn't know what it says go look at it please stop stop when you confront people with sin they will do this well I've emotionally scarred you know I can't just stop I need ten steps five ways eight methods no you just need one knock it off there are no baby steps away from sin you can't stop sinning gradually you just stop knock it off you that are gossipers knock it off knock it off see how smart I am knock it off knock it off Nehemiah said follow my example me and my entire staffers to seeing we've given all that we can to those who are hurting and we're lending them but we're not charging them we're just trying to help them so stop doing what are you doing second of all restore what you've taken make it right make it right it's not enough to just say I'm sorry well you might be sorry but you've ripped them up I'll give it back to them and if I give them interest 1% that's what he asked of them give them everything you've taken it and then pay them for what you've taken from right and then step 3 verse 11 do it right now this day is what you read there which is important because so often when when we get these convictions that the Lord speaks to our hearts if we can wait long enough to not act upon them that conviction kind of goes away oh man yesterday in church the Lord spoke at me I'm glad I made it to Lindsey I didn't have to do anything alright I get out from under it it's easy to walk away from the sharpness of the sword that becomes dull you know with the sands of time move when God is moving keep your accounts current plant good crops so you can get a good reaping I could just imagine these guys with bags of money walking to the poor guy's house corn I gotta get this back to you it's humbling but it's healing and what started off there was a great outcry against one another in verse one and some with everyone together saying Amen in verse 13 there is healing the folks were were were taking care of look they weren't suffering because they were negligent or irresponsible they were poor because the the famine and their dedication to the work of the Lord had left them in difficulty now here's the last step Nehemiah says I don't believe you because you're crooks so I'm gonna have the priest come out and you swear to god you're gonna do that and then I'm gonna pray if you don't I'm praying God wipe you out that brl you Vera so they have the you know swear to God ceremony [Laughter] because repentance is more than words that say oath between you and the Lord you don't want to come back and go I did it again I did besetting sins so it's a promise made to the Lord and near my publicly asked God to deal with those who might have a trick up their sleeve still you know he wants to bind them to the promise they make to the Lord and everybody rejoices and the enemy is again put out and the unity is restored because there's joy in doing the right thing there's victory over sin and there's blessing the people obey and you obey God blesses we're supposed to be stepping stones not stumbling blocks and there's plenty of you and I then are stumbling blocks and you should just knock it off next week we're only going to read down through verse 19 I think at the end of the chapter and we get this very interesting behind the look at behind the scenes look at Nehemiah's personal life it's not something you're given usually from people in power but he wants to open the books up and say look at my personal affairs this is how I live and there's only a few verses to read but I think the Lord will have a lot to say to us next week father this morning as we sit together it may you drive home the idea of to us that there is certainly an enemy that we face but it isn't the guy sitting in the pew with us or the fellow up the street or the church down the block that there is an enemy and his goal is to divide and then conquer to separate us one from another two to halt the work of your spirit in our lives by using the excuse that someone around us has led us down or stumbled us I've made it life difficult for us that and so we're gonna just stop altogether and we realize that the enemy is so good at being the accuser of the Brethren no wonder Lord you hate those that sow discord in the church and may we remember that there aren't very many times in the Bible where you say I hate that and yet you hate that so may we not participate in that because it seems like whatever we whisper in secret will eventually be shouted from the rooftops we don't get away with that you're for us not against us and you want to use us and unless there's sin that needs to be called out publicly where people stand by their word even as Nehemiah did the rest is garbage and and and fodder from the pit of hell and disruptive to the work of God and injurious to his people and a killer of ministry or fruit so help us to stop it and not be a part of it in Jesus name so we stand

Channel: morningstarcc

Views: 8,813

Rating: 4.875 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 2eLd7w-yERw

Length: 35min 22sec (2122 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 10 2017