Nehemiah 4:7-5:19

Calvary Church is dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience the life change that comes from knowing God's Word and applying it to your life. So we explain the Bible first, by verse, every chapter, every book. This is expound. Dear Maya chapter four, let's pray Father, thank you. We've already talked to you about so many things going on in our country, in our world, and in port out our praise and worship. But now Father, in this prayer, intentionally we are opening up our own hearts, our tuning our ears into the frequency of your Holy Spirit, who will speak we believe through the text of Scripture and address issues in our life, confirm things, answer questions, challenge us, just bring us along a little bit further in our growth as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's in His name we pray, amen. So we're in the Maya, and in the days when tasks seem overwhelming, the only way to tackle a big task is to break it into small sections and do one little piece at a time until you get the whole thing done. Like the old saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, how do you build a wall of a city? One stone at a time, one section at a time, one gate at a time, and that's what is going on in Nehemiah. They're building the walls of the city. Rather than building its section by section, Nehemiah decides to build all of the wall at one time. So he divided it up from north to west to south to east, all the corners by the different families that were mentioned back in chapter three stationed them in different various locations close to their house, close to where they would work. And they were by a very systematic organized method able to build the wall up of the city in a total of 52 days. Remember last time I mentioned that Israel had been in the land since the days of Zoraba, Bel, and Ezra for about a hundred years and it wasn't done. Nehemiah gets there in 52 days they build the walls. But we noticed in chapter four, verse six, not the entire thing is built, but it says we built the wall and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height. So already in chapter four they've got the entire perimeter of the wall with its stones put together up to half its height. And here's the reason for the people had a mind to work. So because they had a mind to work and because Nehemiah divvyed it up into those family sections and it was a very systematic and organized way, they made a lot of progress. Our God is a God of order. God's method is to take chaos and to interrupt chaos with order and to bring chaotic things into an orderly fashion. That's how he created the Cosmos, the ordered system of things, six sequential days of creation, Sun Moon stars, all the different life forms in the biosphere on the earth, times and seasons so we can have predictability and regularity. And that idea, that principle carries forth into all of God's work and carries forth into the church in the New Testament. When Paul the Apostle you'll remember in his letter to the Corinthians talks about what's in order and out of order in church meetings, the use of spiritual gifts. He concludes chapter 14 by saying let all things be done decently and in order, decently and in order. So that is God's method and that is what Nehemiah is following. He's letting all of the wall be built decently and in order. And I like that concept and here's a good concept for us to remember. The head of the church is not your pastor. God willing the head of your church is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my head, he is our director, he is the head of his body, the church, the Holy Spirit is sort of like the nervous system that takes the will of the head Jesus and transmits that to every single one of us members in the body of Christ telling us what to do, when to do it, how to do it. So everything is done decently in an order like a human body. It would function smoothly. So likewise that's how Nehemiah approaches the building of the wall even though as we saw a couple times before, including last week and we're going to see a little bit this week and going forward, there are enemies telling them to stop building, telling them ridiculing them, mocking them, calling them feeble, etc. They have opposition on the outside and so they didn't even engage the opposition if you remember last week's study, they just shot up a prayer to God and the net result again, verse six, we built the wall, the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people had a mind to work. They disregarded the tons of the enemies, they didn't even engage in a conversation with their enemies at this point, they prayed and they moved on. And I think it was George Herbert who said, "The best revenge is living well. Just keep enjoying your life in Christ, your abundant life, pursue Him, yes the world will shout you down but just live well. That's the best revenge just living well." So they did it, but verse seven, now it happened when San Ballot, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ash Doddites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed that they became very angry before they were just mocking now, they're very angry because there's been success and God's people haven't even engaged them and they're living well. They became very angry and all of them conspired together to common attack Jerusalem and create confusion. Now we have a principle in this section when it comes to spiritual warfare. They weren't quitters, the people of Jerusalem, they kept building. So should we, but you should know something about your enemy, the devil, I think you already know that he's not a quitter either. He doesn't say, "Okay well they're resisting me so I'm going to back off and just you know find somebody else." No he will study you and he will look for the right time. You remember when Jesus encountered Satan when he was first being tempted out in the wilderness. It said that Satan departed from him until he found an opportune time. It's sort of like a woodpecker. The devil's like a woodpecker. A woodpecker will peck at a tree and if it finds resistance as it's trying to burn its little hole, if it finds very very hard wood or insect larvae it will just move in one direction a little bit further and try again. If it finds resistance it'll move a little further until it finds a weakness, a soft spot. Then it goes down deeper and deeper. Satan departed from him until he found an opportune time. I think Satan and his minions study us to find a soft spot, a weakness, an opportune time, just the right moment. So yeah they built the wall up to half its height because the people had a mind to work but that doesn't mean the enemy's going to turn tail and run. He's just going to He's just going to look for a soft spot. So now there's a conspiracy going on. And you'll notice that there are four groups of people. And if you look at the names and the places, they tell us a little story of the warfare of the people in Jerusalem. First of all, you've got San Ballad and Tobiah. They're up in Samaria. That's north of Jerusalem. Then it mentions the Arabs. Those are the people dwelling south of Jerusalem and Judea. The Ammonites-- Ammon is east of the Jordan River. Ash-Dodd is west of Jerusalem. So north, south, east, and west, God's people are surrounded. By enemies who do not want them to further God's work, they have tried ridicule. They have tried taunts. Now they are conspiring together. Now here's what's interesting. It's interesting that they conspire together because history tells us that all of these different people groups didn't like each other. They were rival groups, very, very divided tribally. They didn't get along naturally. Until now, they conspired together because they have a mutual enemy. And the mutual enemy are the Jewish people. And because they all hate the Jews more than they hate each other, they conspired together and became friends in a convenient manner to fight a common enemy. You may remember in the New Testament that Pontius Pilate tried Jesus. Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pilate. Pilate was sort of-- didn't know what to do with him. He wanted him to just be flagged and then let go. But he sent him to Herod. And the Bible says that Herod and Pilate had been rivals. But after that, they became friends. So they became friends. And their friendship was built upon the mutual hatred of Jesus Christ. Let's get rid of Jesus. At least we can agree on that, right? He's a threat to you and to me. If we both get rid of him, we're both good. So we have four rival groups that wouldn't see eye to eye or get along, but they have a mutual enemy. And they conspired together and come and attack Jerusalem to create confusion. Nevertheless-- let's see what God's people-- nevertheless. And there should always be a nevertheless in your life, in your spiritual warfare. So Satan's coming at you. Satan's attacking you. You feel ambush in several different directions. You feel overwhelmed. Nevertheless, nevertheless, we made our prayer. To our God. And because of them, we set a watch against them day and night. Notice in that verse how practical Nehemiah is and the people of Jerusalem. They're prayer warriors, but they didn't just stop with prayer. They are practical. They prayed and they set a watch. Sometimes Christians are accused of being so heavenly minded. They're no earthly good. Of course, you can be so earthly minded. You're no heavenly good as well. It's best to be both. It's best to be a prayer warrior, but it's wrong to stop with just praying about something. Yes, that's what we begin. We see what's going on in our world. We pray about it. But as you pray, you should be asking, Lord, what do you want me to do in this, if anything? Give me your direction. Help me be practical. And so they prayed and they set a watch. It would be wrong if they prayed and did nothing more. It would be wrong if they just set a watch and didn't pray. That's Psalm 127. Unless the Lord built the house, the labor and vain who built it, the watchman weighed in vain if they think they can do it alone. The Lord has to be their strength. So they prayed and they set a watch. It was Oliver Cromwell, who was a British statesman, highly revered in British culture even to this day, who had a saying. And I think he would even say it to the parliament. Trust God, but keep your powder dry. Pray, but set a watch. Pray, trust God, but get ready to fight and defend if you need to. We would say it this way, in a modern way, trust God, but lock your car in the church parking lot. Because you're still an albacurky. Trust God, but lock the doors of your home. Trust God, but keep your head on a swivel when you're out in public. Set a watch. Because of them, we set a watch against them day and night. Then, now watch, Judah said, now up to this point in this chapter, San Ballot said something to bias, said something, all that ridicule and discouragement. Then, Judah said, now we have some internal conflict. Up to this point, it's all been external on the outside, from the outside, from the enemies. But now, the problem is inside internal adversity. Then, Judah said, the strength of the laborers is failing. We're tired. And there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall. Now, they've been doing so well up to this point. They got half the wall built. And they're going to get it done in 52 days when it's all said and done. But at this point, they've just been working day and night and day and night and they're tired. And they start believing the lies and propaganda of the enemy. Here's what I mean by that. Go back to verse 2. And he spoke before his brethren, the army of Samaritan said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish? Stones that are burned? The enemy called the stones rubbish. The Israelites had just called them stones until now. Now they're rubbish. So Judah said, the strength of the laborers is failing. They're so much rubbish. We're not able to build. We see the immensity of the task. The task is so huge and our strength is so little. We just can't do it anymore. So they're getting ready to quit. I remember before this building, and we've been in this building a long time, but before this building, back in the early 80s, we were in a storefront. The third building we've been in, we were in a storefront, and then actually fourth, and then another storefront. We were getting into our building on snow heights in the northeast heights, snow heights circle. We got contractors together, and we built walls, not like this, not other stones, but dry wall and wood and metal. And we worked hard, and we worked day and night time. We would double up to occupy on a certain day, and we were already gutted, all done, got it all painted, and announced to the church in our previous location. Next Sunday, we're going to be in our new location, all come on time, invite a friend, et cetera. We had that announcement, and that next Sunday, the fire department came in, looked at our work, because we had to get it signed off. We made the announcement by faith, and we thought we had checked all the boxes, but they did not give us our certificate of occupancy. In fact, they said, "You're going to have to make the walls double the thickness. You're going to have to go in and add yet another wall." Well, there's no way we could do it in that week. So I remember we had to, this is before social media, and before iPhones, and before email. We had to make as many phone calls to people as we could to tell them to get the word out that we're not going to meet in the building next Sunday. In fact, then station people at the new building on that Sunday to redirect them back to the old building because of that. And I remember how I felt that week. I felt like I had just been punched in the gut. You know, we had worked for so long. And trust of God and we prayed. And now it says, all the wind left our sails. And I felt so defeated and so deflated. And I felt like this. Who's rubbish? (congregation laughing) The strength, we just don't have it anymore. And, verse 11, of course, the rest is history. Here we are. Our adversary said they will neither know nor see anything until we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to see. So they're conspiring an ambush. So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came, that they told us 10 times. And what I said about Satan looking for an opportune time. And they'll come back and back and back and back, not once but again and again 10 times. From whatever place you turn, they will be upon us. Therefore, and again, there's a therefore. They don't walk away from it. Therefore, I position men behind the lower parts of the wall at the opening. And I set people according to their families with their swords and their spears and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord. I love that verse. I mean, it just preaches itself. Do not be afraid of them. Now they were discouraged and they were fearful because they've been threatened 10 times. We're gonna come and get you. We're gonna kill you. Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord. Great and awesome. And fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses. So far in this chapter, there has been ridicule from the outside. Discouragement from the inside. And now fear. And have you noticed that those are three tactics the enemy uses in our lives? Nobody likes to be ridiculed. That's why we back off some. A lot of people have been ridiculed out of the kingdom of God. 'Cause they're afraid of what their friends will think. If they give their lives to Christ, it really gets serious. People have become discouraged and they stop following the Lord. But this area of fear, fear is such a trap. And it's the worst way to live to live fearfully. Instead of confidently. Fear not. Fear not. Think about fear as it's contagious. If you have a crowd of people and a few of them get afraid, that kind of fear can turn into pandemonium in a crowd. This is why back in the book of Deuteronomy, when the Lord was putting together the government for the people of Israel and it came to the armed forces, God said, now, when you go out to battle, there are some people that you should just automatically exempt from going to war. Number one, if you just built a house, tell the soldiers, if you just built a house, but you haven't been able to dedicate it or live in it, go home. You've been working and working, and you'll be on the battlefield distracted thinking about my new house. Go home, enjoy it. Second, group of people, if you planted a vineyard, but you haven't been able to eat any of the fruit of it, be ashamed for you to go out to battle and get knocked off in your dead, you've been able to have any grapes from your new vineyard, so go home and enjoy your vineyard. Number three, if you just got married, it'd be ashamed for you to go get killed in battle because then somebody else is gonna get your wife, so go home and enjoy your wife. The fourth group that was exempt, God said, tell anyone if you are fearful and afraid, don't go to battle. Why? Because there's nothing worse than a soldier who's scared. Fear is contagious, it's spread rapidly. So, Gideon followed that advice. You remember when Gideon was fighting the Midianites? He was greatly outnumbered. He had 33,000 people or 32,000 soldiers against 135,000 Midianites, greatly outnumbered. And God came to Gideon and said, Gideon, you have weighed too many people. 32,000 to 135,000 of the enemy. You have too many people for me to give you a decisive victory. Because if your 32,000 men defeat 135,000, you're gonna say, aren't we awesome? Small fighting force, you know, we're really well trained and really get to what we do, we're just really best of the best. So, you have too many for me to deliver them, to deliver them into your hands. So, he says, go tell the people if you're afraid because you're outnumbered, if you're afraid, go home. So, Gideon got out there, goes, okay. If you're fearful or afraid, don't go to battle, go back home. 22,000 left. That many people were afraid being outnumbered. So, now he has 10,000 people against 135,000. God came to him a second time, he said, you still got too many. And you know how the story goes, Gideon gets down to 300, so it would be unmistakably a miracle attributed to a divine work. So, he says, don't be afraid, 'cause fear is contagious. Remember the Lord. When things get difficult, we forget who it is we're serving. That there are more with us than with them. The greater is he who is within you than he that is in the world. Because it's overwhelming, there's just so many problems on every side we get overwhelmed. Remember the Lord. And that is always the cure for fear. Remember the Lord. Fear and faith cannot coexist. Fear will drown out faith or faith will drown out fear. Don't be afraid. Remember the Lord. Great and awesome, he'll fight for you. And it happened verse 15, before I get into verse 15. Remember the Lord is the principle of aligning yourself with God's purposes. So, the negative command don't be afraid, the positive command, remember the Lord. Okay, we've covered the first one, don't be afraid. The second one, remember the Lord. That is align yourself with God's plan. Align yourself with God's purpose. What do I mean by that? Nehemiah and saying, remember the Lord is saying, look, remember we are here in Jerusalem because this city is the city, God chose out of all the cities to put his name, to put his temple, to get the glory. Jerusalem has a history. Jerusalem will have a future. Remember the Lord. We're in God's sovereign will here. God has a sovereign purpose for the city of Jerusalem. Remember the Lord. Joshua before the Battle of Jericho, they're gonna go against the first walled city in the Promised Land. He sees a man with a drawn sword. And Joshua says, are you for us or are you for our enemies? And the man says no. In other words, wrong question. But as a commander, the commander of the Lord's army, I have come. So Joshua is asking, are you for us or against us? The commander that he sees says, that's not the issue. Are you on God's side or are you not on God's side? I'm the commander of the Lord's army, not you. Take off your shoes, you're on holy ground. And so like Moses, Joshua took his shoes off and he worshiped the Lord. He aligns himself with God's purpose. Bows before the Battle and then marches ahead. And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had brought their counsel to nothing that all of us returned to the wall everyone to his work. And so it was from that time on that half my servant worked a construction while the other half held the spears, the shields the bows, and wore armor, and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah. Those who built on the wall and those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction and with the other held a weapon. This is the verse that inspired a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon to write and carry out a magazine in London called The Sword and The Trial. It was a very popular magazine at the time. It supplemented his preaching ministry. He was known all over England, all over London especially, but this was a ministry magazine that was put out during Spurgeon's days and he called it The Sword and the Trial based upon this text with one hand they held a trowel to build the wall with the other hand they held a sword, so the sword and the trowel. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side and so he built and the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. Well I got to tell you when I read these verses and because I've been over to that part of the world so many times I do think of modern Israel. I don't think we can appreciate what it's like to live in the land of Israel. As soon as Israel got into the land by a United Nations mandate back in '47 but May 14, 1948 because they were surrounded by Arab nations on all sides they were attacked to drive them out of the land, drive them into the sea from the river to the seas and idea of let's get rid of all the Jews who lived there and drown them out, kill them all. So they were attacked that day after their independence. They've been attacked several times before in several wars which they won decisively. But can you appreciate what it's like to have a building code that says when you build your house, your house has to be within so many feet of a bomb shelter. Because when a siren goes off you have so many minutes or seconds depending on where you live to get to a bomb shelter. So it's mandated in every building, public space and private space you have to have the entire population have access and ability to all be placed in bomb shelters because of those threats. Or can you appreciate what it's like for school children to go on outings to different places like Azou or out in the forest. Always according to law do they have to be accompanied by soldiers with submachine guns. Because children throughout their modern history have been attacked by Arab gorillas who have come into destroy and murder school children. So when I read this that you know we're building but at the same time we're protecting it's very similar to what modern Israel has been up against since they got back into the land. I remember a few years back it was I was on a tour to Israel and I stayed a few extra days and my tour guide invited me to their sons swearing in service. He was in the Israeli army and I said I think you'll like it you know he's gone through boot camp and he has to the last part of the boot camp as they put a backpack on they have to put 80 pounds on their back and they got to walk 10 miles up a hill and they go to one of these hills in Judea and they have this ceremony and the ceremony was moving. And what moved me is that they had basically two different sections, two tables on one set of tables they had the weapons they were giving the soldiers. And on the other set of tables were Bibles. So they would give each soldier a weapon and a Bible weapon and a Bible weapon and a Bible and they read from the book of Joshua. This is the land the Lord your God has given you go in and take the land and live in it etc. And they would read those don't be afraid and etc. It was a very moving ceremony. So every one of these builders had a sword girded in his side and he built and the one who sounded the trumpet was besides me. Then I said to the nobles the rulers and the rest of the people the work is great and extensive and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Therefore whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us here our God will fight for us. So we labored in the work half of the men held spears from day break until the stars appeared. So Joshua knew that as they were building the walls the different sections of the walls the different families who were building around that perimeter of the wall and behind me you see a picture of much of the city walls of ancient Jerusalem. Picture people atop those walls building things. He knew that they were separated by geography separated by stones separated by topography. So if there was an attack there needed to be a rallying call. You could blow a trumpet people would convene and converge be together get their orders for military service and go out and fight in one area. Got to rally the people together. As a New Testament church we rally together frequently hopefully we rally together on the weekends and you gather on Wednesday night as well. It's a rallying cry we rally together. Why is it important because so many things separate us jobs schedules we live and work in different parts of the city or the area but then we come together and we hear God's word together and we worship together we get sort of like our marching orders and the Bible says we should do that frequently right as we see the day approaching don't neglect the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some but regularly as we see the day approaching. So there's such a there's so many levels of good that come from us gathering together like this. It's not just information it's inspiration and I love this our God will fight for us. They're practical they're setting a watch they've got the sword while they're building but they recognize ultimately God is the one who's going to guard us. Our God will fight for us. Have you ever seen God fight? He's good. I've seen him fight and let me give you one example. Several years ago I was down in the Philippines and I was down in a southern island the island of Mindanao and I was at a couple different places and I spoke at a church and the pastor was telling me about a terrorist organization in the area that had come to the church a few weeks prior in Jeeps with weapons broke into church during the middle of the service came up to the platform with their guns pointing at the pastor and all the people and said we're going to come back next week next Sunday we're going to be back. At which time you're going to bring everything you own all of your money and you're going to bring it to that church service and you're going to give it to us. If not we're coming into town and we're going to bulldoze this town with bullets. Now if you lived in that town and you went to that church by the time the next Sunday rolled around and it's church time I wonder if you'd say you know I'm going to go to the next town there's a little church over there I just feel led to maybe try something different today. I wonder how many would be faithful to a church that had that kind of threat. So I'm wide eyed as the pastor told me this he said everybody came to church and we waited but we gathered early and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed and our God will fight for us God do something. So we waited and we had our church service and we're looking at our watch and nobody came and it wasn't a later on that afternoon or evening that we discovered we heard the news that the terrorists were on the way. on their way to the town, to the church, in their jeeps, but they got in an accident and they were overturned and they were killed. And so, you know, they had such faith after that and I had gone, I was there just a few weeks after that. And I thought, wow, God's good. Oh, I bet. He did. So our God will fight for us. So we labored in the work and half the men held spears from daybreak to the stars of beer to their added all day. At the same time, I also said to the people that each man and a servant stayed at night in Jerusalem that they might be our guard by night and a working party by day. So neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes, except everyone who took them off or washing. So they just kind of worked and slept in their clothes until they, you know, I don't know, once a week, did the laundry and went at it. Okay, time to get to chapter five. There's another problem that's festering on the inside, an internal problem. There was a great outcry, verse one. There was a great outcry of the people and 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 for them that we may eat and live. There were also some who said, "We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses that we might buy grain because of the famine." There were also those who said, "We borrowed money for the king's tax on lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children is their children, and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves and some of our daughters are brought into slavery already. Is it not in our power to redeem them? For other men have our lands and our vineyards." Okay, there's a complaint and it's a legit complaint. And the complaint is, okay, look at, we're building the wall, this is hard already. We've managed to get past our fear and their ridicule. But there's a famine. We're paying exorbitant taxes to the king of Persia. I tell you what, the Bible is so relevant. Whoever said the Bible is irrelevant. High taxes, food prices going up, kind of sounds like the Wall Street Journal article I read yesterday. There's another problem. There are Jewish people and they seem to be wealthy nobility who have lent money to these poor people with usually, that is exorbitant interest rates. So there's an economic stranglehold on the people and they are complaining. So that's the internal problem that's been festering, I'm guessing during the entire time they've been building the walls. So they've got lots of problems going on from the outside and from the inside. And now they bring this up. There's a famine, high taxes, and this exorbitant interest rate. So they complain. Now let me, I don't want to be too hard on them, hard on them, but, and I'm glad they brought it up and it's going to be resolved. But can I just also say that complaining can make things worse? Well, if there's a problem, you do want to bring it up and you do want to address it, you want to do it the right way. This seems to be this overwhelming refrain of complaining. Did you know, when I read this article not long ago, but when you complain, it hardwires your brain. And one scientist said that a person who complains, they can, it can actually hardwire the structure of the brain so that it becomes easier to enter into negative thinking from, from then on. The more you do it, the more you get stuck in it. So you can hardwire the structure of the brain to think negatively and it becomes difficult to think positively or to experience positive emotion the scientist said. So it's good to get things out in the open, but if you are a chronic complainer, it's why people don't like being around you. I love you, but I thought you needed to know. So they bring it up. Verse six, "And I became very angry." This is near my eye, "I became very angry." When I heard their outcry and these words, now this anger is not a mild anger. It's an intense anger. It means a seething, a burning. That's what the word here means, a seething, a burning. And it's not like he's throwing a temper tantrum kind of an anger. It's the slow, steady, righteous indignation. Remember how the Bible and Ephesians forces be angry and sin not? That's what's happening. It's a righteous indignation, a slow, steady, righteous indignation. He's angry, but he's not sinning. I became very angry when I heard their outcry. It's what Martin Luther referred to as the anger of love. Jesus got angry over turn tables. And the disciples saw that and they remembered what it says in the book of Psalms, "Zile for your house, hath eaten me up." I became angry. I remember years ago, a William Bennett who worked for the Reagan administration wrote a book called "The Death of Outrage." And he ever heard of that book, "The Death of Outrage." It was during the Homanical Lewinsky Bill Clinton thing and how people were just sort of blown it off. Like, yeah, no big deal. And a lot of people in the nation were just not a big deal. And so he wrote about the death of outrage that it's a sign of a deteriorated culture when you can't get angry at the right things. And that it's only the right kind of anger that forms true conviction that will carry you through to resolution, death of outrage. So, verse seven, "After serious thought," I think the King James says, "After I consulted with myself, that is I thought about it a while." "After serious thought or consulting myself," I'm thinking about it. "I rebuked the nobles." See, the problem is with the Epperclass, the nobles and the rulers. And I said to them, "Each of you is exacting usually "that is, exorbitant interest rates from his brother." So I called a great assembly against them. And I said, "According to our ability, "we have redeemed our Jewish brethren "who were sold to the nations. "Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? "Or should they be sold to us?" And then they were silenced. And they found nothing to say. Now that verse tells me something interesting. Nehemiah is saying, "Do you remember? "We actually paid good money "to buy people out of Persian slavery "to bring them to this land." So evidently, Nehemiah made a very good income working as a cut bear for King Art Exorcise, Langemonis. And he had the financial wear with all to help give money to the Persian government, to release Jewish slaves who have been enslaved by the Persians to bring them back to Jerusalem. So Nehemiah's logic is pretty iron clad. These people have been redeemed from slavery only to be enslaved again by you with your exorbitant interest rates. So they have to be sold back into slavery. They were silenced. They found nothing to say. Then I said, "What you're doing is not good. "Should you not walk in the fear of God "because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?" Not only are you putting them back under the yoke of slavery by this, but you're ruining your testimony. Because now the enemies around us on all four sides think of sand ballad and think of Tobaya, they're gonna look at us and laugh us to score and go, "Look, these Jews aren't any different than we are. "Those godly people, God's people, "aren't any different than us." This is exactly what we're doing. exactly what we would do. They're doing what we would do. There's no difference. So you're ruining your testimony to unbelievers who are watching us. And that is what David had in mind, or sees me, Nathan the prophet had in mind when he went to David after he's sinned with Bathsheba. And David said, "I've sinned." And Nathan says, "Well, okay, you can be forgiven, but by your deed you have given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme." You're giving unbelievers reason to say we're a bunch of idiots. Now, you know, nothing has really changed. You know who applauds the most when churches fail, or when Christian organizations fail, or individual Christians fall because of their sin. You know who applauds the most, the enemies of the Lord. The world is looking for a chink in our armor. Looking for inconsistencies, they go, "Ah, see, there are no different than any of us. They're just as bad as we are." So that's Nehemiah's point. You're enslaving them and you're ruining your testimony. That's the idea in verse nine. I also, verse 10, "With my brethren and my servants and lending them money and grain, please let us stop this usually." Restore now to them. Even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, the oil, that you have charged them. Notice that word now. Restore now. Okay? We see a problem. Let's fix it today. Not gradually. Okay, well over time, we'll sort of wean them out of being slaves and we'll charge them less and less. Now we're just going to stop it. Now, you know, when you find something is wrong sending your own life, stop it now. Do you remember the story in the book of Exodus? When Moses brings those ten plagues, and one of the plagues is the plague of frogs on the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh comes, tells Moses to stand before him, Moses faces off with Pharaoh, and Pharaoh says, "Please pray to the Lord, your God, to stop the plague of these frogs on the land." Moses, okay, I'll pray. Now, Moses, Pharaoh, I'm going to give you the honor of you telling the Lord, and I'll tell the Lord on your behalf in my prayer, when do you want me to have this? Tell the Lord to stop this. And Pharaoh says, "Tomorrow." I've always found that an odd request. You're plagued by frogs. You hate them. They're rivet, rivet everywhere in your bed, in your needing trough, in the oven, in the fridge. And he says, "Please, tell God to stop it." Okay, win. Tomorrow. I want to send just a little bit more today. Then have it stop. So, restore now. Do it now. When you find a deficit, let your heart be that immediate turn to the Lord. Remember the Lord. Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, etc. And so they said, "We will restore it, and we'll require nothing from them. We will do as you say." And I called the priest, and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. This is called accountability. Okay, you're going to make that pledge. "Come here, priest. I want you to hear what these people have said." So they're making it public. Accountability. Two is always better than one. But then, verse 13, he gets dramatic. "I shook out the fold of my garment," and I said, "So may God shake out each man from his house and from his property who does not perform this promise." Even thus, may he be shaken out and emptied, and all the congregation said, "Amen!" So they like that sermon. And praise the Lord, and the people did according to this promise. Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year." Now you'll notice this, from the 20th year, until the 30th second year of King Artexerxes 12 years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor's provisions. Now just a note to tuck in your mind for later. Why does he mention the dating here of from the 20th year until the 30th second year? Here's why. And you'll find out later as you go through the book. In the 30th second year of King Art Exerxes, so he's in Jerusalem 12 years, evidently he told the king that he would be back. So he's in Jerusalem as governor for 12 years. After 12 years, he goes back to Persia, to Susah, the capital. To work again for King Artexerxes. That was a contract he was under. So he goes to Jerusalem goes back to Persia, then he will come back to Jerusalem eventually. But he's sort of on a contract to check in after 12 years, so he does that. And so this is mentioned here. But he says, "I neither or my brothers ate the governor's provisions, but former governors who had been before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides 40 shuckles of silver's yes, even their servants bore rule over the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of the Lord." Before Nehemiah was Ezra. Before Ezra was Zerubba Bell. Both of them were governors of Jerusalem and then Nehemiah. Both of them took the stipend. Both of them took from the people to be supported. But Nehemiah, because he worked for Artexerxes and is obviously financially fluid, decided, "I'm not going to take any wage at all for doing this job." And here's why he said, "Because of the fear of the Lord." That doesn't mean that Zerubba Bell was not God-fearing or Ezra was not God-fearing. This is just a personal conviction that Nehemiah has and I respect it. By the way, that is an overarching principle that should govern our lives, the fear of the Lord. What does that mean? The fear of the Lord is not some sort of morbid, "I'm afraid of God. Wizard of Oz." This is how I define the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the reverential awe, a reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God, reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God. The only dread, the only frightfulness is that I would live in such a way that would displease him. I'm afraid of that. The fear of the Lord, a reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God. It doesn't mean that God is mad and frowning at you all the time and you should live in morbid fear of him. It should be a healthy, reverential awe. So I did not do so because of the fear of God. It was Oswald Chambers who said, "If you fear God, you won't have to fear anything else. If you don't fear God, you'll have to fear everything else." So that's what governs his life. This overarching principle of a reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God, aka the fear of God. Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall and we did not buy any land. That is, I wouldn't interest in self-aggrandizement or broadening my portfolio but just finishing the wall. All my servants were gathered there for the work, moreover. By the way, and he says, "I didn't buy any land." You know, you got to realize now was the time to buy land, right? When interest rates are high, when people are trying to get rid of stuff because they have to pay taxes, etc., etc., that's when they're going to be motivated to sell. So Nehemiah was smart. It's like, "I'm going to buy their land." He said, "I'm not into that. I want to finish the task." Indeed, I will continue the work on the wall. We did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover, there were up my table 150 Jews and rulers besides those who came to us from the nations around us. So understand, Nehemiah personally is footing the bill for 150 people to eat every single day. So he's making a sacrifice now. That which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also foul were prepared for me once every 10 days. abundance of all kinds of wine yet in spite of this, I did not demand the governor's provisions because the bondage was heavy on this people. Remember me, my God, for good according to all that I have done for this people. And that is a refrain that he will mention a couple more times in this book. We did it, chapter 5. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these great principles that we find in this book. Thank you, Lord, for Nehemiah, this man of integrity, although he had a budget and he had financial stability, and he was very generous in giving his time and his talent and his treasure to this task. Thank you, Lord, for his heart for you and the fear of the Lord that governed his life. And what an example he is to us. And so, Lord, I pray that wherever we find ourselves in life and in the body of Christ, that we will build our part of the wall with integrity, with honor. Give us a mind to do the work, a heart to pray to you and a will to honor you and to honor those that we work with and serve with. For more resources from Calvary Church and Skip Heighting, visit CalvaryNM.Church. Thank you for joining us from this teaching in our series, Exbound.