Let's turn to Nehemiah for our study this
evening.
Nehemiah introduces himself in the first verse of
chapter one and the date of the writing
of his prophecy, the 20th year of Artaxerxes,
which was the stepson of Queen Esther.
So the book of Esther, if you were
writing in a chronological order, would fit somewhere
between Ezra and Nehemiah.
The Artaxerxes here is actually the stepson of
Esther, son of Artaxerxes, the husband of Esther.
And so in the 20th year would be
in the 20th year of the reign of
this particular Artaxerxes.
Esther would fit before Ezra and Nehemiah actually.
So you're in the 20th year of the
reign of Artaxerxes.
They're in the palace of Susa or Shushan
and his brother, Hanani, and we learn from
chapter seven that he is actually a brother
to Nehemiah, had been to Jerusalem.
And when he returned from Jerusalem, Nehemiah was
questioning him concerning the state and the condition
of the holy city.
Now, Nehemiah was born in captivity.
In fact, it is now almost 90 years
after the first of the captives have returned
to Israel.
In 536, Cyrus gave the commandment to return
to Israel and rebuild the temple.
And this is about 445 BC.
So it's about 90 years later, 91 years
later.
And so it is 160 years since the
beginning of the Babylonian captivity.
So Nehemiah has never seen Jerusalem.
He has never seen the temple.
And yet, within his heart, he identifies with
Jerusalem and with the temple.
A psalm of captivity is Psalm 137.
The psalm begins that those that were captive
in Babylon hung their harps on the willow
tree and they sat down and cried by
the great river.
And in that psalm, there is that cry,
if I forget the old Jerusalem, let my
right hand forget her cunning and let my
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
It is interesting how that God has stamped
Jerusalem into the hearts of every Jew, even
those that have never seen it.
Somehow there is stamped into their heart a
love for Jerusalem.
And it's just a part of them.
They really can't help it.
It is just a part, something that God
has embedded in their heart, a great love
and desire for Jerusalem.
Of course, they are commanded in the scripture
to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
And in their Passover celebrations, no matter where
they are in the world, as they observe
the Passover, they make the statement this year
here, next year, Jerusalem.
And it seems to be the desire and
the dream of every Jew to go to
Jerusalem.
I received a letter the other day from
a very good friend of ours, David Aziel.
Many of you know David who have been
on tours with us to Israel.
And he was planning to come to California
this summer, but he didn't make it because
they were able to buy a piece of
property in Jerusalem to build themselves a house.
And he started writing about the thrill that
they were experiencing being able to own a
piece of property in Jerusalem.
And he went on this holy, beautiful city
that God has chosen.
And he really started waxing eloquent in his
letter to us all about Jerusalem.
It's just something in their heart.
They can't help it.
It's there.
It's something that God has planted within them.
And there is something about the city.
There's a, there's an aura, there's a charm,
there's a magic to it.
That the first time you see it, you
just sort of weep without being able to
control yourself.
There's just something about it.
So this is Jerusalem.
And, and there's a feel, there's something there
that is, is of God.
God said He would never take His eyes
from Jerusalem.
And so Nehemiah, a true patriot, having never
seen Jerusalem, still his heart is there, his
desires are there.
And so he questioned his brother all about
the state of Jerusalem, the state of the,
the city and the people and all.
And, and he received really a very discouraging
report from Hanani.
The remnant of the people are left, are
discouraged.
Their enemies are harassing them.
The gates of the city have been burned.
The walls are lying in rubble.
There's great affliction and reproach upon the people.
And so it came to pass when Nehemiah
heard these things, that he wept and he
mourned for certain days and he fasted and
prayed before the God of heaven.
So this brought him great sorrow of heart
and being a true patriot, hearing of the
saddened condition of Jerusalem, he wept, mourned over
it, and then fasted for certain days while
he prayed.
Now, Nehemiah was a man of prayer and
he is always offering up prayers unto God.
And through the book, it is one of
the important aspects of your study of the
book of Nehemiah is to make note of
the prayer life of Nehemiah.
Not always necessarily long prayers, sometimes just prayers
under his breath in a moment of time
when things are transpiring and he needs special
wisdom or guidance, just Lord guide me or
Lord strengthen me or Lord help me at
this point, but always throwing up these little
prayers to the Lord.
Now his prayer is given to us here
in chapter one.
And I said, I beseech thee, O Lord,
God of heaven, the great and awesome God
that keeps his covenants of mercy for those
that love him and those that keep his
commandments.
Now, in his prayer, he is acknowledging the
faithfulness of God.
God, you keep your promises, you keep your
covenants to your people.
And he acknowledges that the destruction of Jerusalem
and the captivity of the people was a
part of God's righteous keeping of his word,
acknowledging the fact that God had warned them
that if they would forsake the Lord, that
they would be forsaken of the Lord.
They had the warnings and Nehemiah in his
prayer unto God recognizes and acknowledges God's faithfulness.
Lord, you told us through Moses that if
we would turn from thee, that we would
be driven from the land and all, and
he acknowledges the faithfulness of God to his
word.
But then God had also promised that if
the people would turn to him, that he
would restore them to the land.
And so he is reminding God of the
promises that God had made unto the people.
Remember, I beseech thee, the word that you
commanded your servant, Moses saying, if you transgress,
I will scatter you abroad.
But if you turn unto me and keep
my commandments and do them, though there were
of you those that were cast out into
the uttermost parts of the earth, yet I
will bring thee back again.
And so the reminding God of his promises
and of his word, and then asking God
to bless the people and to show his
great hand of power towards them.
So he went in after several days to
the king, bearing the cup of Artaxerxes, for
Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer.
And so we are now moving ahead.
You remember the story began in the month
of December, and now we've moved ahead to
April, and he is taking the cup into
the king, and he is still troubled this
much later over the condition of Israel.
And the king asked him concerning his sadness,
you've never been sad in my presence before.
What's wrong with you?
And so Nehemiah opened up his heart.
Actually, the king had asked him a question
and the king discerned.
He said, it's obviously a sorrow of heart.
What's wrong?
And so Nehemiah answered, let the king live
forever.
And he told the king of the plight
of his countrymen, those that had gone back
and of the news that he had received
and the heaviness of his heart because of
the condition of Jerusalem, that beloved city.
And so he said, I prayed unto the
God of heaven and I said unto the
king.
So he's talking to the king and then
while he's talking, he throws up this prayer
to God.
And I prayed unto the God of heaven
and I said unto the king, I'd like
to have permission to go back for a
period of time to Jerusalem myself to see
what I might be able to do to
help the people there.
And so the king says, well, how long
are you going to be gone?
And so he gave him a specified time
to return.
And so the king gave unto him letters
of authority and he was made the Tirthashah,
which is the governor appointed that by the
king to go back to Jerusalem and to
be governor over that area.
It turned out to be a period of
12 years that he had come back.
And so the king gave to him the
commandment to go back and to restore and
to rebuild Jerusalem, the authority, the commandment.
Now, this is one of the most important
dates in history, the date that the king
gave the commandment to Nehemiah to restore and
to rebuild Jerusalem, because we are told in
Daniel, the ninth chapter, that there are 77
determined upon the nation Israel.
And from the time of the commandment to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the coming of
the Messiah, the prince would be seven sevens
and 62 sevens or 483 years.
So here on the 14th of March, 445
B.C., the commandment was given to Nehemiah
to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem, one of
the most important dates in the history of
the world, because from this date, it can
be ascertained the date of the coming of
the Messiah.
It would be 483 years.
Here is the commandment given for the restoration
of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the city.
So just as was prophesied in the word
of God, 483 years later, Babylonian years of
360 years.
Jesus came in his triumphant entry into the
city of Jerusalem on April 6, 32 A
.D. Now, Daniel said, but the Messiah will
be cut off and receive nothing for himself
and the people will be dispersed.
And even as the prophecy of Daniel was
so accurate, Jesus came the very day.
So he was also cut off.
He was crucified without receiving the kingdom.
And the Jews ended up in the dispersion,
the dysphoria.
So this is a very important date in
history.
The king granted me, he said, according to
the good hand of the Lord upon me.
And so he came with some of the
captains and the soldiers of the Persian army.
And as he came, there were a couple
of fellows, Tobiah and Sam Ballot, who were
very upset over his coming.
One was a Moabite and the other was
a Ammonite.
The Horonite is actually from the Horon in
Moab.
And they were immediately antagonistic to Nehemiah because
he sought the welfare of the Jews.
In other words, they hated anybody who was
seeking to help the Jews.
Now, it is interesting and tragic that there
are people today who hate the Jews and
they really don't know why.
And they hate anybody who loves the Jews
or anybody who seeks to help the Jews.
This week in Salt Lake City, we had
quite a confrontation with some Palestinians.
Because of the film, Future Survival, that was
shown Sunday night.
And they came and they were all filled
with anger and hostility because we dared to
say that God's word was being fulfilled in
the return of the Jews to Israel.
That God said he would bring them back
into the land.
And this just absolutely angered them.
And there was, well, there was just a
lot of shouting and accusations and all.
And it was quite a scene as these
Palestinians were so upset that a film would
be shown that would be pro-Israel, or
at least give the Israeli position from a
biblical standpoint.
But there are many people who have this
kind of antagonism towards the Jewish people, and
Tobiah and Sambalet were too.
Because he sought the welfare of the Jews,
they were very upset with his coming.
And so he said, Nehemiah came to Jerusalem
and he just visited with them for three
days, not letting anybody know what was the
purpose of his trip.
And then after three days at night, after
everybody had settled down without letting anybody know,
he took some of the men that had
come from Persia with him.
And he was riding on his animal as
they were walking around the city walls as
he was observing the condition of the walls,
the gates.
And they finally got to a place where
the rubble was so thick that they just
couldn't go any further.
And so they came on back into the
city and didn't let anybody know of their
little midnight journey or junket around the city.
And then Nehemiah called the leaders together and
he unfolded to them his plan for the
rebuilding of the city.
And it involved actually all of the people
working together, each family group taking a certain
section of the wall and working on it.
And so the priests were to start there
at the sheep gate and then next to
them, the families that would be working on
down to the various gates.
And there are 10 gates that are listed.
And then later on, the gate of Ephraim
is listed and then another gate is listed.
So probably 12 gates in all.
And the various families that would be working
on this gate and on the wall.
And in chapter 3, you have the names
of all of the families and the section
of the walls where they would be working.
And because the names really are insignificant to
us, we're not going to wade through chapter
3, but go on to chapter 4.
Now it came to pass when these antagonists,
Ambala and Tobiah, learned that they had started
building the wall.
They were very angry and they began to
mock the Jews.
And they gathered together the army of the
Samaritans, who of course were already antagonistic towards
the Jews.
And they sought to hinder the work through
mockery.
What are these feeble Jews trying to do?
And Tobiah said, if a fox would go
up against that wall they're building it, he
could knock it over.
It is interesting how that Satan so often
uses mockery in order to discourage the work
of God.
It's one of the tools that Satan often
uses against us.
You've probably been subjected to mockery.
Oh, don't tell me you believe those fairy
tale kind of things, you know.
And mockery is often used, ridicule is used
as a tool to discourage the work of
God.
And unfortunately, many times it works.
We are sort of cowed by the ridicule
of others.
We don't like to be ridiculed.
We don't like to be mocked.
And mockery is oftentimes a tool used to
discourage a person in the work of God.
Now, Nehemiah met the challenge of their mockery
with prayer.
Here, O our God, for we are despised.
And turn their reproach upon their own heads
and give them as a prey of captivity.
Now, Nehemiah answers this attack with prayer.
Again, as we pointed out this morning, Nehemiah,
as all of the leaders of the Old
Testament, were men of prayer, praying for guidance
when the king says, well, you know, why
are you so sad?
What would you want me to do?
And, O God, you know, give me favor.
And then he lays it out to the
king.
And always there acknowledging God and everything.
Now, here comes this ridicule.
And he just offers his prayer unto the
Lord.
And God will turn it upon their own
heads.
It's sort of like some of the Psalms
of David, where he prays not for God
to bless his enemies, but for God to
break their teeth in their mouth.
And I sort of like David, you know,
I can identify with him easier than I
can sometimes with the words of Christ.
Where he said, love your enemies.
I find that difficult.
Do good unto those who despitefully use you.
That's hard.
But where David says, Lord, let the angel
of the Lord pursue them and break their
teeth in their mouth and smash their noses
and all.
Lord, I can get into that.
And so here is Nehemiah saying, Lord, turn,
you know, turn it on their own heads.
Turn it back to them, Lord.
And so he's saying, don't cover their iniquity.
Don't blot out their sin.
Judge them, Lord.
Send them to hell.
And he said, so we built the wall.
And all of the wall was joined together
until, for the people had a mind to
work.
So when Sambalat and Tobiah saw that the
work was progressing so well, they now decided
on a more direct assault against this building
project.
And they began to attack with commando type
of raids, harassing the builders and those that
were seeking to do the work because they
began to fill in the breaches and the
wall began to go up.
And it was obvious that these fellows were
intent on what they were doing.
And so they sought to hinder the building
of it by these attacks.
And again, Nehemiah answered this through prayer.
Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God
and we set the watch against them day
and night because of these attacks.
Now we offered our prayer unto God and
we set our watch.
The prayer was not used in lieu of
responsible actions, nor should prayer ever be used
in lieu of responsible actions.
God expects us to act responsibly.
Some people use prayer as an excuse for
their laziness.
It should never be.
We offered our prayer unto God and we
set the watch against the enemy.
God does expect us to do what is
wise and what is prudent, though all the
while we are trusting in him.
We know that if the Lord doesn't watch
the city, the watchman wake but in vain,
but the watchman still wakes up.
We don't say, well, Lord, watch the city
and then everybody just go to sleep.
But the watchman is still there.
But if the Lord isn't watching, he's waking
up and he's there in vain.
We realize that it is necessary that God
watch the city, but we also realize it's
necessary that we take the prudent actions that
are required of us.
So we offered our prayer unto our God
and we set our watch day and night.
And so then there was further problems that
developed because those of Judah said the strength
of the bearers of the burdens are decayed
and there's so much rubbish that we're not
able to build the wall.
It was just, they just began to get
discouraged.
And what a tool discouragement is in the
hand of the enemy as he seeks to
discourage us from the work of the Lord.
The enemy seems to have a whole bag
of tricks.
He'll try to stop you by ridicule.
If that doesn't work, he'll assault you.
If that doesn't work, then he'll try to
make you discouraged.
And just so many things the enemy uses
to keep you from doing the work of
God.
And it's tragic when a person allows discouragement
to stop him or to hinder him from
that work and calling of God upon his
life.
And there are always many people with words
of discouragement for anything you might seek to
do for the Lord.
Oh, don't you realize people have tried to
do that before?
Oh, we tried that 10 years ago and
it was really a flop, you know, and
here you're all inspired and you feel like
doing something for the Lord.
And there's always some of the poor cold
water on your ideas to discourage you.
And many times people unfortunately allow discouragement to
keep them from the word of God.
And so he said
in encouragement to them, they were saying, oh,
you know, our strength is we're tired and
these harassing attacks and all.
And he said, don't be afraid of them.
Remember the Lord.
And remembering the Lord is always the cure
for fear.
David said, yea, though I walk through the
valley of death, I will fear no evil
for thou art with me.
Fear always ensues when I forget the Lord.
Why art thou cast down on my soul?
Why art thou disquieted within me?
Because I have forgotten that God is on
the throne.
I have forgotten that the Lord has said
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I have forgotten the power of the Lord
and the presence of the Lord.
And thus fear gripped my heart and discouragement
because I had forgotten the Lord.
Don't be afraid of them.
Remember the Lord.
The Lord is with you.
The Lord will give you strength.
You need not to fear.
And so God put the counsel of their
enemies to not.
And they returned again to the building of
the wall, every man to his work.
So it came to pass from that time
on that half the fellows would work and
half would stand watching with their spears ready
for the attack.
And Nehemiah stood with them.
And next to Nehemiah was the fellow with
the trumpet.
And whenever attack would come, the guy would
go and blow the trumpet in that place
and everybody would drop their trowels.
And they worked with a trowel in one
hand and a sword in the other.
And they'd take off with their swords to
drive off the enemy.
Now, it is interesting that in Daniel's prophecy
concerning the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
to the coming of the Messiah, the Prince,
he there declared and the walls shall be
built again in trouble as time.
And surely the building of the wall was
fraught with all kinds of trouble as the
enemies sought to harass them and to hinder
them in their work, working with the trowel
in one hand, the spear in the other
half working while half watched.
And they work from sunup to sundown till
the stars were out at night.
And they didn't even bother.
They were so tired.
They just lay down with their clothes on.
They didn't even bother to remove their clothes,
except that they would wash them once in
a while.
But they just were staying right on the
task.
And the builders, every one of them had
his sword girded by his side, waiting for
the trumpet to sound, dropping the trowel, going
to battle.
Now, in chapter five, further problems arose, and
this time from within.
If Satan can't defeat you from his forces
from without, then he seeks to wreck you
from the forces within.
Many times the greatest enemies of the church
aren't the atheists or those godless forces outside
the church, but it is actually the church
itself.
Factions within the church and usually the thing
behind it all is jealousy, which springs usually
in the church from greed.
All the church is being blessed more than
we are.
And the tragedy of the of the infighting
that goes on within the church.
You would think that the church would wake
up to the fact that we are all
one body working together for one king, one
Lord.
Someone this morning was telling me of some
pastor here in Orange County who warned his
people not to go to Calvary Chapel.
Well, that's fine.
We don't have room for them anyhow.
But I'm not worried about you going to
another church.
I thank God that people from Calvary Chapel
are filling all the churches around the area
because wherever they're going, they're taking the love
of Jesus Christ with them.
And the love of Christ is sparking revivals
and a work of God all over the
place.
And to me, that's exciting that God is
working.
And it's a tragic thing that the churches
cannot realize that we should be striving together
for the cause of Christ.
Our problem is that we haven't properly identified
the enemy.
Our enemy isn't the church across town that's
being greatly blessed of God.
Far be that from being an enemy.
That's a joy and a blessing and something
to rejoice and praise God for.
Not to get jealous about or envious because
the Lord is working in their behalf in
such a wonderful way.
Oh, but they're Baptists, you know.
Well, God loves the Baptists or the
Nazarenes.
He even loves us.
And we need to realize the oneness of
the body.
And when one member is exalted, they are
all exalted.
And when one area is being blessed, we're
all being, it's the kingdom that's being blessed.
I'm a part of the kingdom.
How thankful I am for the day that
God delivered me from narrow sectarianism and allowed
me to see the whole body.
Where I didn't any longer have to feel
jealous because another church was prospering or being
blessed.
But I could rejoice because the whole kingdom
of God is expanding.
Rejoice with all my heart.
And I believe that I can say with
all honesty, and of course only God knows
my heart, but I rejoice in every great
work of God around the country that people
are being brought to Jesus Christ.
I thank God for the ministry of Jerry
Falwell and for the ministry of Pat Robertson
and these others who are touching so many
people for God.
Rex Humbard, so many of these fellows who
are just being used to reach so many
lives.
Praise God for it.
Now, I may not agree with their methods,
nor I may not agree with them all
the way in the various aspects of the
doctrines.
And yet, I shouldn't allow what minor differences
that we may have to stand in the
way of the rejoicing and the fact that
God is using them and through them people
are being brought into the kingdom of God.
Paul acknowledged that there were people there in
Rome who were preaching Christ from different kinds
of motivations.
He said, I could care less.
Christ is being preached.
Praise the Lord.
So they think that they're, you know, adding
to my own bonds and afflictions.
They think that it's bothering me, but not
so.
I rejoice that Christ is being preached.
And that needs to be our attitude.
But the next problem that came to them
actually came from within.
It's no longer Tobiah and Samballot and the
outside forces that are seeking to hinder the
work of God, but now it's forces from
within.
And so often, Satan will begin to strike
from within, and not only will he strike
by divisions and strifes within the body, but
also by the introduction of many, what I
call, sterile ideas or beliefs that he will
inculcate within the body of Christ.
And these sterile doctrines have the effect of
destroying a person's fruitfulness.
When a person is sterile, he can no
longer reproduce.
And there are certain doctrines that will create
spiritual sterility.
They're not so evil or awful of themselves,
but the effect of them is that they
will keep you from really beginning to, or
continuing to reproduce for Jesus Christ.
You become sterile.
So many of the doctrines that make the
person so totally inward, looking at myself, looking
at my own conditions, I am not worthy
to bring anybody to Christ until I'm mature
enough to shepherd them into full maturity.
Therefore, I shall not witness anymore until my
shepherd tells me that I'm capable and mature
enough to shepherd someone to full maturity.
Well, what is the effect of that?
It stops me from witnessing.
It creates a sterility.
And soon those groups are just feeding off
of themselves.
They are no longer really a real light
within a community.
The deliverance.
Devil, devil, who's got the devil?
And so anxious to go around and exercise.
Whatever demon may have come into the room
tonight, and if you burp, you're guilty of
having the demon of gluttony.
And so exorcism is in order.
Well, you get so inbred, and of course,
you know the effect of inbredding is idiocy.
And it's also sterility.
You get to where you just don't reproduce
healthy sheep any longer.
Satan, his attacks from within the church.
What happened here in Israel is that there
were certain people, and the priests were among
them, and the rulers, who took advantage of
the people's plight.
And the people needed to borrow money in
order to plant their crops.
And these guys were charging exorbitant interest so
that they weren't able to pay back the
money.
And they were having to give their crops
for the money.
Then they started selling their children as slaves
in order to get enough money to exist.
And they were having large families.
They just couldn't feed their families.
And the rulers were just taking advantage of
the people and putting them into total bondage.
And here were families selling their daughters and
their sons as slaves in order that they
might just get by.
And it was great discouragement to the people
because of the high interest and the advantage
that the wealthy class were taking over the
poor class, actually just making themselves richer and
richer while they were oppressing the poor.
And this really got to Nehemiah, and he
called these rulers together, and he said, what
you are doing is not right.
Let's get rid of this usury, these high
interest rates that you're charging.
Set the servants that you've bought free.
And let's start having an equanimity among us.
And so they hearkened unto Nehemiah, and they
obeyed his voice.
He was so upset, he just shook his
lap.
And he said, and so let God shake
the person who is guilty of these exorbitant
interest rates and the oppressions over his brothers.
And so the people agreed to it.
They all said, Amen, and they praised the
Lord together.
Now, Nehemiah was a beautiful example unto the
people, in that he did not take a
salary from the people.
He did not take of their taxes, but
he supported himself completely all the while that
he was there.
Not exacting taxes upon the people in order
that he might live a luxurious kind of
life.
The governors that had been there before him
all lived off of the people, but Nehemiah
lived off of his own resources, showing really
that his heart was in his office.
It was not just a a job, it
was a real calling of his heart.
And he even fed his guests, and he
had 150 people eating at his table every
day.
So it took one ox and a half
a dozen sheep and all to feed all
of these people that came, but he took
all of that out of his own pocket.
And at the end of the chapter he
says, Lord, think upon me for good, because,
you know, I'm a pretty good guy.
According to all that I have done for
this people.
Now, Nehemiah went a step further than I
would ever dare to go at that point.
I've never asked the Lord to think upon
me for good, for the good that I
have done.
I always just say, think upon me, Lord,
in grace and in mercy, because you are
gracious and merciful, Lord, think about me.
And I come to God on the basis
not of what I have done or the
good of my own life, but I always
come to God on the basis of his
grace and his mercy.
There are times when I might be tempted
to come to God on my own goodness,
right after I have done some gracious, benevolent
act, but I'd have to come in a
hurry because I might not be able to
come in 10 minutes because I can blow
it so quickly.
So I would just rather come on the
basis of God's grace and mercy, because then
I can always come.
The door is never closed.
It's always open to me.
I'm never turned away because God is gracious
and God is merciful unto those that call
upon him.
But Nehemiah had done a very magnanimous job
and in a magnanimous way.
And thus, he asked the Lord to think
upon him for good, for the good that
he had done to the people.
Now, his enemies weren't yet through.
They still continued to seek to hinder the
work and discourage him.
And so when Samballat and Tobiah saw that
the work was going on and the walls
were getting up there and there was just
a few breeches left in the walls, that
they sent a message to him saying, come
on down into one of the cities, one
of the villages that we might talk with
you and and that we might, you know,
talk about detente and peaceful coexistence and all.
And Nehemiah said, I knew that they were
intending mischief on me.
And they kept sending these notes.
Come on down.
We know we need to have a council.
We need to meet together.
We need to talk things over so that
we can have an understanding.
And four times they sent this kind of
a message.
But Nehemiah just ignored it.
He said, I'm too busy doing the work
of God to take time out to talk.
And he did not slow up the work,
but just continued.
And then they sent the message and they
said, now the rumor is that as soon
as you get the walls built, you're going
to proclaim yourself king and you're going to
rebel against the king of Persia.
And this is the message that is going
to be sent to the king of Persia.
So you better come down and so that
we can get things straightened out.
And so here is a little bit of
extortion kind of a thing or, uh, you
know, blackmail.
If you don't come down and talk, we're
going to send this message to the king
of Persia that you are intending word is
the rumors out that you're intending.
As soon as the walls are up, you're
going to proclaim yourself king and rebel against
him.
Of course, you remember Nehemiah was in very
good terms with Artaxerxes and, uh, he was
a trusted servant to Artaxerxes.
But when a fella is gone for a
while, you never know what might be upon
his mind or heart.
And such news going back to the king
could be, uh, very bad.
And yet Nehemiah, uh, still, uh, refused to
go down.
He said, there is no truth to it
whatsoever and just affirm the fact that it
was a lie and that he was just
going to go on continuing in the building.
And, uh, he just said, there's, there's no
truth to it.
And he dismissed it.
Now he was willing to allow God to
be his defense against the lies that were
being circulated.
And it's an important thing for us that
we learn to allow God to become our
defense.
Now, if you seek to defend yourself, God
often will not defend you.
You want to try to defend yourself.
All right, go to it.
But you know, you can get yourself so
involved in trying to defend yourself from all
of the attacks and all of the things
that are being said that your whole life
is just trying to go around and straighten
out all the stories that are being told.
You'd be amazed at the stories that I
have heard that are being told about me,
my jets and my
yachts.
Well, my little grandson has a little yacht
that he was battery powered propeller that he
puts in the swimming pool, but that's the
closest thing to a yacht I have.
And that's my grandson.
And I had a jet sweep one time,
but never a jet airplane or never an
airplane, but the Jehovah witnesses have their story
about me that they tell the people when
they go door to door.
The Mormons have their story that they tell
the people about me when they go door
to door, because we're one of the greatest
threats to the Mormons and the Jehovah witnesses
in the county, because we teach the word
of God.
And the truth is always the greatest threat
to the lie.
Light is always the worst enemy of darkness.
And because we just teach the word of
God, they have a difficult time with us
because we don't have any Babylonian hangups.
It makes it tough for them.
And of course you people do too, because
they've gotten wiped out so many times when
they've come to your doors, they get skittish
when they see a fish sign around or
on the bumper.
So a lot of times they'll just skip
your house.
And if you begin to challenge them with
any kind of biblical intelligence at all, they'll
use it and say, you go to Calvary
Chapel.
Well, Chuck Smith, you know, and then they've
got all kinds of interesting little stories of,
well, someone talked to Chuck Smith and he
said, you know, and this kind of stuff.
Now, if I sought to go around defending
myself from all of these things, who told
you that?
And try and trace it down and get
to the origin.
I would be spending all my time trying
to run down these stories.
How the enemy would love that.
Then I wouldn't have any time to study
the word of God, to prepare my heart
before the Lord in order that I might
feed you.
He would love very much to detract us
from our purpose of serving God, detract you
from your serving of the Lord, getting you
to try to build your defense and defend
yourself against the attacks or the challenges or
the lies or whatever.
He tried to distract Nehemiah.
This story has been told about you.
It's going to be sent to the king.
You better come down.
We better talk about this.
He said, nothing to it.
It's a lie.
I won't come down.
I'm too busy doing the work of God,
busy in this work.
And so then they sent to him a
fellow who came sort of in the guise
of a prophet.
The Lord, they're out to get you, Nehemiah.
You better go into the temple and sleep
at night.
So you'll be safe because they're apt to
slip in to the city at night and
they're out to get you.
And so you better get in the temple
where you can get behind the closed doors
and be safe in there.
And Nehemiah said that he realized that this
was an attempt to strike fear in his
heart and to create a reaction out of
fear.
Now, so often our reactions out of fear
are wrong.
Fear can motivate us to wrong movement.
And they were trying to strike fear in
his heart, trying to create this assailant.
Assassins are going to get you.
You better go into the temple of God
and close the doors and sleep in there
at night, lest you become assassinated.
And he said, I realized that he was
not from God, that this was a lie,
that they had paid him and put him
up to this thing in order to strike
fear in my heart.
And he said, should such a one as
I do this thing?
Should such a one as I?
I'm God's servant.
God is watching over me.
God is protecting me.
Should I try to find refuge by hiding
in the temple?
My God, think upon Tobiah and Samballot according
to their works and the prophecy and the
rest of the prophets that would have put
me in fear.
Satan tries to use fear so often because
fear is an enemy of faith.
I believe that fear and faith are mutually
exclusive.
If you have fear, you don't have faith.
If you have faith, you don't have fear.
Where fear is allowed to take over, faith
departs.
Where you have that strong faith and confidence
in God, and of course, again, he encouraged
the people not to be afraid to remember
God and putting it into practice in his
own life, remembering that God was watching over
him.
Now again, we do those things which are
wise and prudent, but not motivated by fear
or the fear of the enemy's attacks.
And so he would not, through fear, seek
to find shelter within the temple.
If God wants to protect him, God can
protect him out on the walls and he
doesn't have to hide in the temple.
And so the wall was finished in the
25th day in the month of Ilu.
In 52 days, they completed this project of
the rebuilding of the walls.
It was many years before the city was
completely rebuilt.
The houses within the city were still pretty
much rubble, but now at least they had
protection from their enemies.
The walls have now been built.
And now, of course, it's just the setting
up of the gate that is left there
in the walls.
But in 52 days, they had finished the
building of the wall.
Now, there were even some Jews that weren't
totally loyal to Nehemiah, and he makes mention
of them.
And they were reporting on him to Tobiah
and Samballot.
And again, the idea was to put him
into fear, but Nehemiah was not the kind
of a man that would be brought down
by fear.
Now, in chapter 7, it came to pass
when the wall was built and the doors,
the porters and the singers and the Levites
were appointed, that he gave his brother Hanani.
Now, this is the one who had come
to Babylon and told him of the sad
condition of Jerusalem and of the people.
He gave them charge over Jerusalem to these
faithful men who feared God above many.
And I said unto them, let not the
gates of Jerusalem be open until the sun
is up.
And before the sun goes down, make sure
that the gates are closed, that the inhabitants
of Jerusalem might actually dwell safely within its
walls.
Now, beginning with verse 5, you have actually
a repetition of Ezra chapter 2.
For this is a list of the registry
that they found of the people who returned
at the beginning, when Cyrus had allowed some
49,000 or so of them to return.
This is the same register that is given
in Ezra 2, the families that came, the
numbers of the family and the items that
they brought with them.