Opposition and Overcoming (Nehemiah 4) — Stephen Baker

Returning From the Mountaintop to Ordinary Christian Struggle

I'd like to take you to Nehemiah and chapter 4. We started on Friday evening in Nehemiah chapter 8. And you might say, well, we're kind of going backwards here. There's a sense in which I think this chapter took me a long while to get to, if you want me to be honest.

It's quite appropriate. You see, when you go from a conference like this, I guess if you're like me, you go back home to the routines of life. You go back to the normal activities of your assembly. You go back to work, or college, or school.

And it's not all like being at a conference. You don't have Christian friends around you. You don't have chimes singing. You don't have that concentrated benefit of listening to the Word of God. And often, after what you might call a mountaintop experience, a good time, a really happy time, you sometimes plummet into a valley.

And you think, it's tough being a Christian. It's hard going home to an unsaved partner. It's hard being in a place with a very few Christians. Maybe a lot of you are privileged to live in a home where everyone's a Christian.

I work often with many Christians who've been saved within maybe the last, well, some very recently, and some over the last 20 years. And not everyone in their home is a Christian. Life is a struggle.

Nehemiah 4 and the Opposition to Rebuilding

We're going to discover today. Nehemiah, as I introduced you to him earlier over the weekend, is back in Jerusalem. He's building the walls of the city. And it's not straightforward. It's not plain sailing.

It's difficult. Let's read in Nehemiah chapter four. But it came to pass that when Samballat heard that we built the wall, this is a kind of diarized record of Nehemiah's experience. He was wroth and took great indignation and mocked the Jews.

And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, what do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

Now, Tobiah, the Ammonite, was by him. And he said, even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Listen to Nehemiah, verse four. Hear, O our God, for we are despised.

And turn their reproach upon their own head and give them for a prey in the land of captivity. And cover not their iniquity. And let not their sin be blotted out from before thee. For they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.

So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof. For the people had a mind to work. But it came to pass that when Samballot and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth.

And conspired all of them together to come out and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because of them.

And Judah said, the strength of the bearers of the burdens is decayed. There's much rubbish so that we're not able to build the wall. And our adversaries said, they shall not know, neither see. So we come in the midst among them, slay them and cause the work to cease.

And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us 10 times, said unto us 10 times, from all places when she shall return unto us, they will be upon you. Here's Nehemiah again, verse 13.

Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords and spears and bows. And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, be not you afraid of them.

Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your houses. And it came to pass when our enemies heard that it was known unto us and God had brought their counsel to naught or nothing that we returned all of us to the wall.

Everyone unto his work it came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants wrought in the work. The other half of them held both the spears and the shields and the bows and the Habergens and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.

They which builded on the wall and they that bear burdens with those that laid it, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work with the other hand held a weapon and the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side and so build it.

And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said unto the nobles, to the rulers, to the rest of the people, the work is great and large. We are separated upon the wall, one far from another. In what place therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort you thither unto us.

Our God shall fight for us. So we labored in the work. Half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. Likewise, at the same time said I unto the people, let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem that in the night there may be a guard to us and labor in the day.

So neither I nor my brethren nor my servants nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, save that everyone put them off for washing. If there's an overriding thing, I want you to walk away from this message this afternoon is this.

You are building for God, especially in a New Testament church context. You don't need to go to 1 Corinthians chapter three to see that we're all building, specifically those who teach and preach and generally every believer.

So number one, simple lesson, at the beginning, we're building. Number two, there will be opposition. There will be those who want you to stop serving God. Number three, it's God's work. It's bigger than you.

It won't fail because it's not dependent on you. It's God's work. And we're going to learn lessons about how we need to work together. If I put a heading over my message this afternoon, it would be this, opposition and overcoming with the help of God, opposition and overcoming.

Seven Methods of Attack Against God's People

I noticed in these chapters through Nehemiah that there were seven methods of attack. And we're going to think about this a little bit, not just in our introduction, but as we go through some of these verses.

As Christians, we need to wake up. I think they say, wake up and smell the coffee, but you guys are better at coffee than us. So maybe you're already smelling it. The point is, you can't as a Christian, sleep your way through your Christian life.

You can't afford to just doze that I'm a Christian, I'm going to heaven, everything's going to be okay. Of course it's going to be okay. You're on the winning side. The victory's already been won, but you have a work to do.

God doesn't want lazy Christians. He wants workers. He wants those who serve, but it's going to be tough at times. I've not come to depress you, because toughness goes in hand with the fact I have a God who's mighty.

The victory is the Lord's and we can trust him. But look very quickly through at these seven methods of attack. First of all, in verses one to six of this chapter, we get mockery. Did you notice the words that are used at the beginning of this chapter?

This man, Sanballat, he's angry and greatly enraged, and he mocks the Jews. He's jeering, he's using sarcasm, he's mocking. Look what he says. He speaks to his own countrymen. Verse two. He says to them, what are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore this themselves? Are they going to get to the point of making sacrifices? Little did they know they would. Will they finish in a day? I guess he didn't realize it would only be 52 days, and they would have finished the walls.

Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and all the burnt ones? He's using sarcasm, Tobiah, the Ammonite. By the way, there are always groups of people nations that are symbolically the enemies of God's people in the Old Testament.

And so you read with me down in verse number seven, the Arabians, the Ammonites, the Ashdodites. We talked yesterday about the Amalekites. There were nations that hated Israel. Not much has changed, is there?

The nations that hate Israel, that want to see their downfall. So they use mockery. Tobiah, he says in verse three, sarcasm. He says, even that which they build, if a fox go up, he'll break it down. He's really saying it'll be so fragile, even a fox just climbing over the wall would actually make it collapse.

Then they play mind games with them. So from verse seven down to verse nine, he's kind of playing with their mind. I thought Stephen was very trendy this morning. He told us about, I'm gonna even forget the expression now.

It's gone from me. But he used a very trendy expression. Was it ghosting or something like that? Sorry? Gaslighting, not even trendy enough to remember it. Sarcasm and methods of, people use very clever ways.

See you're all smiling because you're all familiar with that. They played mind games here. Look at verse seven to nine. Sanballat, Tobiah, they're angry, they're conspiring, they're plotting and fighting, and they're trying to cause confusion.

And we can see, and we will see in a moment, the response of Nehemiah. Nehemiah, but it's more than just external enemies. Did you notice verse 10 down to verse 12? Judah says in verse 10, they're discouraged.

Judah says, well, you know, really the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There's too much rubble. They say, we're not able to build this wall by ourselves. Judah was, you know, the predominant tribe there coming back into Jerusalem.

And then we have the language of fear. Look at verse 11, said the adversaries kind of say to us, they'll not know, we'll be among them and stop their work before they even notice. And if you go to chapter six and look at verse 10, Nehemiah says, I came to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Adaliah, the son of Mihi-Tabil, who was shut up and they wanted to meet with him.

And he said, Nehemiah replies in verse 11, should such a man as I flee. They're trying to put terror in his heart and to create fear. There's this idea running through this section, going to go into chapter six, that they're really saying you need to compromise.

Just let us help you. And also they use the idea or the whole attack of slander. So there are many ways that they're attacked. See, if you're trying to serve God, Satan is very clever. We'll come back to this in a moment or two.

External and Internal Opposition in the Church

He uses many methods to try and discourage God's people. There are two main sources of opposition any church will face, any gathering of God's people. It's just the same as here. There's external attack.

There's internal attack. And we get that explicitly taught for us in Acts chapter 20. It's the great occasion when the apostle Paul takes a break in his journey. And he meets the elders from Ephesus at a place called Miletus.

And over the record of his discussion with the elders from Ephesus, he tells them amongst many things, he tells them these two things. He says that there will be men who enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

He's saying there will be external attacks on your assembly. There'll be those who come in amongst you and they won't deal kindly with your people. They'll bring false teaching. They'll undermine the faith.

We got to be careful about that. Now, I use the internet a lot and I use it to put out Bible teaching, to put out gospel messages. But we do need to be careful how we use online information. You can go onto whatever search engine you use.

I'll not do, as Marcus does, a promotion for one brand. He must be getting commissioned for Apple. But you can go to whatever method you do of searching through the internet. And if you put in a topic, especially now with AI, you say, give me a gospel message in 50 words.

It's amazing what comes up. It's very accurate, actually. But you can get a lot of false teaching out there. It looks plausible. It's well put together. So I'm not saying don't use the internet for those types of things.

I am saying be very careful. Be very wise as to the sources you use. And so there can be external attack upon God's people. It's maybe not as overt as somebody walking through the doors of your hall and saying, now, let me teach you this.

That is very wrong. And by the way, false doctrine generally doesn't always look like false doctrine. It's usually just the truth with a twist. It's usually just a subtle turn of something. But when you begin to dig a little deeper, you're like, hmm, it doesn't fit with the Bible.

Be careful about external opposition. But Paul says to those elders, he says, not only will people enter in, but he says, of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

So he's saying there will be those that actually come up and rise and then they're looking for popularity. Always be careful when there's any kind of following or someone's encouraging that themselves.

Men who serve God should not be looking to build a following. So you be careful. You know, you might think you've got so many friends on Facebook and you've built up this profile. It's not about that.

If you use internet for anything biblical, it's not about, and I had to learn this because you look at all the stats and you think, well, there's not many people reading that, not many people looking at that.

And then I sat down and I thought to myself, if 60 people read a gospel article, that's more unsaved than I'll get in one gospel meeting. So you've got to be realistic as you look at these things. But it's not about your following.

But here are men that come and are amongst God's people and they rise up and they're going to teach things that are not in keeping with, perverse things, sinful things. So we got to be really wise about that.

Nehemiah's Godly Character Does Not Exempt Him From Problems

Now, as we go through the chapter, let me just remind you about Nehemiah. Nehemiah, you might ask the question, does or do problems come because someone isn't walking well, walking right? In other words, if I live my life well for God, if I serve God well, does that not mean that I will kind of avoid those pitfalls and those problems?

You have a little read through Nehemiah chapter one. It's your introduction to this man. He's quite an amazing man. In fact, turn back to chapter one. I'll just highlight a couple of them for you. I think it's good on a Sunday afternoon to get people to look at verses in the Bible because it kind of, well, unless you're asleep already, hopefully it will keep you awake.

Look at chapter one. Nehemiah tells us in verse two, Hananiah, or Hanani, one of my brethren came. He and certain men of Judah, and I asked him concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity concerning and concerning Jerusalem.

By the way, this point in time, he's in Shushan the palace. So he's in that same place that we read of with Esther and Ahasuerus. He works for the king. But here's a man who has got a great interest in God's people and in the city of God.

So he asks about the Jews and he asks about Jerusalem. Look at verse five. He's troubled by what he hears. There's great affliction. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down in verse three. Verse four, he weeps, he mourns, he fasts, he prays.

Verse five, he's pleading with God. Now you go through the rest of that chapter, you'll find you build a profile of Nehemiah. He's a praying man. He's a humble man. He's a man who knows the Bible. He's highly trustworthy.

He's generally happy. So how do you know that? Because the day he's sad, the king says, what's up with you? You normally look happy. So it was abnormal. Hope you're a happy Christian. It's a lot of grumpy Christians, isn't it?

Especially in meetings, by the way. I see somebody smiling, that's good. In meetings, sometimes we look as if, why am I here? This is awful. Maybe it is, maybe it's the preachers. I don't know. But it's good to be a happy Christian.

It's good to have the joy of the Lord. Nehemiah was a happy man, and he was a man of faith. But I want you to notice now, going back to chapter eight, we've kind of thought about the problem. But what does he do?

Verse four, remember this is a diarized record. In verse four, he says, he records praying. He says, hear, oh our God, for we are despised. He brings the problem to God. Is that what we do when we get into problems?

It's a great habit. You turn to Acts chapter four. The Christians in the early church are facing persecution. They're suffering really for being believers. And they hear that Peter and John have been put in prison.

And it says in Acts four and verse number 24, that when they heard that, they lifted up their voice with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which made heaven and earth. Very similar to what we're thinking about, the creator, the Lord.

They immediately bring their problem to God. Now, I don't know about you here in Iowa, but I hope that you are people that, and I use this word carefully, quite naturally pray. Now, I know praying is not a natural thing.

It's a spiritual thing. But what I mean by that is, I hope praying is not just a formal activity. Now, I did talk about formally praying the other day. Talked about your posture, about kneeling to pray.

And that's good. There should be times like that. But I do hope that as Christians, when you're together for a meal and something crops up, just stop and pray. When you're with people in the house or even out doing activities and something, you're talking about something and it needs to be prayed about, just pray.

I know, to be fair, there are groups of Christians that you maybe wouldn't fellowship with. But to be fair to them, they're far quicker to pray than we are. They're far more responsive. They believe God will hear their prayers.

Nehemiah's Pattern of Immediate Prayer

And so they lift their heart to God. And I want to take you now for a moment and do you a quick tour of Nehemiah. In fact, it reminds me, I was a wonderful preacher in England. He doesn't preach now. He's stopped preaching because of his age.

He's a man called John Riddle. He was a wonderful preacher. Don't know if you ever had him over here. But I remember one of the times I heard him preach with his wonderful Southern English accent. He said, today, brothers, I want to take you on a Thomas Cook tour of Jerusalem.

He was actually going through Nehemiah of all the books. I want to take you have a quick tour through this book just for a second or two. Because Nehemiah is famous for on the spot prayers. Something happens, Nehemiah prays.

A problem arises, Nehemiah prays. My brother, my sister, I hope you have such a close relationship with God that when the problem comes, you say, Lord, can I talk to you about it? Can I bring this before you?

Now look through the book with me just for a moment. Chapter two. I call them minute prayers or minute prayers. Chapter two, verse four. He's in with the king. He's being questioned by the king. King says to him, what are you asking for?

Look at verse four. The king said unto me, for what does thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said unto the king, hey, that was a quick prayer, wasn't it? I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king.

By the way, there's a lot in that statement. He's talking to one of the most powerful men on planet earth. But before he gives an answer, he speaks to the most powerful God of heaven. Our God is greater than your boss.

Don't disrespect your boss. You're meant to honor him and work for him or her. But God's greater. God's over all. He's greater than Donald Trump. He's greater than any great leader. He's greater than anyone in this world.

Nehemiah, he prays and he then makes his request. Go over chapter four. Chapter four, verse eight says this. We're back to Sam, Ballot, Tobiah and all these people. Well, we read this, didn't we? Look at what it says in verse eight.

They conspired all of them to come together to fight against Jerusalem. Nevertheless, we've made our prayer unto God and set a watch. So we pray and we do. By the way, prayer is not a cop-out. Prayer is not, well, I prayed so I won't do anything.

I prayed and I said to the king. We prayed and we put somebody on high alert to make sure we were protected. Prayer goes hand in hand with wise action. Look at chapter five, chapter five. There's a preparation that's being made there.

That's number 18. And by the way, you are well-fed, fed well. I'm getting like Stephen, I'm getting tongue-tied. You were well-fed this weekend. But I don't think it really matched up to this one here.

Maybe next year. I don't know. Look at verse 15. Daily, one ox, six sheep, fowls, and once in 10 days, stores of all sorts of wine. Oh dear, we can't do that one. Yet, for all of this, required I not the bread of the governor.

But listen to what he says. He prays. What he's saying is my resources are limited. I don't want to go and ask for anything because I, he's basically saying I claim to trust God. And if I go and ask the governor to give me something, well, you know, I look as if I'm not trusting God.

So he says in verse 19, think upon me, oh my God, for good. Then look at chapter six and verse nine. These attacks are taking place. They made us afraid, saying thy, their hands shall be weakened from the work that it be not done.

Now therefore, oh God, strengthen my hands. He's going to meet with those who are opposing him. He says, Lord, give me strength as I go before them. Look at verse 14. He says in verse 13, they hired people to frighten me.

Well, he says, verse 14, my God, think thou upon Tobias and Ballot according to their works. And go to the last chapter, chapter 13. Chapter 13, he's actually setting an order, some civic administration.

But even in the midst of doing that, he says in verse 14, remember me, oh my God, concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God. Here's a man of prayer. Now, Jeremiah is looking for justice.

And I think similar to what Mark has said, some of these things are harder for us to explain. In the Old Testament, there seemed to be a sense of preying down God's judgment. We're not actually told to do that in the New Testament.

We've to love our enemies, to do good to them that despitefully use us. But the Old Testament, there seemed to be that element of you broke the law and you expected God's judgment to come down upon you.

We're expected to do as the Lord Jesus. It's been mentioned, I think twice already today. He committed himself to God who judges righteously. But please notice with me in verse six, he's prayed. And then he says in verse six, so we built the wall for the people had a mind to work.

I'm sure you do. I'm sure you've got the right attitude when it comes to serving God. But let me just encourage you in case some of you aren't quite there. It is relatively easy to come to a conference.

It's easy to be a Christian at the conference. It's harder when you're doing stuff on your own. Maybe you like me are in a smaller assembly and there's a lot that lands on your lap and you think, get a bit tired at times.

Not sure if I've got the right attitude. Listen to Nehemiah and the people. He said, we built the wall and all the wall was joined together for the people had a mind to work. It's good, isn't it? To have the right attitude, to have a desire to build the kingdom of God, to see the local assembly grow, to see people saved.

It's good to be encouraged. And it's also good to be united in our work for God. I want to spend my, I have about 10 minutes left. I want to spend a bit of time talking about opposition and the tactics of Satan.

Satan's Tactics: Discouragement, Fear, and Compromise

We thought about some of the tactics here, mockery, threatening, fear. But notice verses seven and eight. They were angry when they heard the walls were being built. They were conspiring. They were going to come together.

They were going to fight. They were going to hinder the work. Turn with me for a moment to the New Testament. Keep your finger in Nehemiah chapter four. Then go to second Corinthians and chapter two. Paul speaks a number of times in second Corinthians about the work of opposition, about the fact that Satan wants to destroy God's work.

And he says this in verse number 11 of second Corinthians chapter two. He's actually talking about something that Stephen was speaking about, about David and his restoration and that God's purpose when a man or a woman sins is not to get rid of them, not to exclude them, but so that having repented, they can be restored.

There might be some things they can't do in the sense that a position of leadership it will be some things that maybe if you've sinned in certain ways, you'd be wise not to go there. Having said that, there might be lessons you've learned through that experience, but God's purpose is always to restore people.

So Paul is writing about this because in first Corinthians five, there's a man who sinned grossly sexually. He's been put out of fellowship and Paul is saying now he's repented. Don't leave them out there.

Don't make him exclude it. Bring them back. And he says in verse 11 of second Corinthians chapter two, less Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now, what that literally means is we know his tactics.

I wonder if we do. Paul says, I understand the schemes, the techniques that Satan uses. So we as believers need to be wise. We need to understand that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. That's literally what his name means.

That Satan would love to destroy you as an individual and destroy the church of God in your locality. That's why as believers, we need to be very, very honest. Hebrews chapter 12 talks about laying aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.

Now, there's a difference between weights and sins. Now, I'm a bit like Marcus. We've got the same hairstyle, of course, and maybe not quite as slim as he is, but my interest in sports is about the same level.

So my illustrations from the sporting world are rather hypocritical because I'm not really in there. But Paul, well, I said Paul. I don't even think Paul wrote the book of Hebrews personally but there we are, it always seems to slip out.

But the writer to Hebrews says this, lay aside every weight. That is, if you were going out running, you don't put heavy boots on, you don't put your heavy coat on, you get rid of all of that. Awful as it might look, you put on your Lycra and you get your trainers on and you run laying aside every weight.

As Christians, there are some things the devil uses in your life to hold you back. There's nothing wrong with them. They're not sinful, they just don't do you any good. They're not bad in themselves, they just don't help you run the race.

And for you, it might be different to me. What might hold you back might not hold me back. So there are weights, things that there's nothing wrong with but they hold me back from running my race as a Christian effectively.

But he says another thing, doesn't he? He says there are sins that so easily beset us. What does that mean? It literally means there's some things I'm prone to do that are sinful, that you're not interested in.

There's some things that you're prone to do that are sinful, that don't affect me. Same principle, the weights are legitimate but can hold you back. The sins are wrong. But I have some things in my life that would trip me up far quicker than you.

Please wake up. Because you're a Christian doesn't mean you're free to do whatever you like. Be careful what you watch, be careful what you read, be careful where you go, be careful the group of friends you have, be careful the songs you sing, the lyrics that get into your head, the things you read because they all have an impact on your life.

Be wise, be conscious. Paul writes, it is Paul this time, he says it's high time that we wake up from sleep. The day is far spent. We're running out of time. The Lord is coming. We've to be witnesses.

We've to build his kingdom and the church of God. When you come to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul writes there, he gives us a very good outline of what we're up against as Christians. He says in verse three, though we walk in the flesh, that means we live in a physical world.

We do not war after the flesh. That means we don't use the things of this world and the battle we're in is not physical. Your conflict is unseen. That's what makes it so difficult. Satan operates on your mind, operates on your desires, operates on the passions of your life, operates unseen.

So he says, we're warring not physically, does have a physical effect in some areas, but it's an unseen battle. And so he says in verse four, the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly to the pulling down of strongholds.

Sorry, not fleshly, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What he's saying is don't fight those desires by your own physical determination. Come to God, draw strength from God, pray to God.

Because in chapter 11, he reminds us that the devil sometimes appears as an angel of light. Sometimes it just looks okay, but it's actually all wrong and so damaging. So there is a great warning for us there as believers that just as Nehemiah faced physical opposition, we are facing a spiritual warfare.

That's read Ephesians six, go through that carefully, the armor of God, the battle that we're in as believers. And it is a good principle by the way, that what is physical in the Old Testament is generally spiritual in the new.

And that applies both in church practice and in the general principles of Christian life. Let us conclude by just thinking about how they practically protected themselves and apply a lesson or two to our lives.

Defending the Truth While Building for God

Notice, Nehemiah doesn't just pray, he acts. Look at verse 13, he organizes people into family groups with swords, spears, and bows, so he prepares to defend and he gives them the equipment. Then he says to the people, verse 14, be not afraid, remember the Lord.

That's good, isn't it? If you go back to the story of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat is one of the kings of Israel, of Judah, and he wins his battle by starting a choir. That's amazing, isn't it? He gets the army to sing, because he gets them to sing about the might and the power and the greatness of God.

Nehemiah says to these people, remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren. You see, we have to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So he equips them, he reminds them of God and all his power and authority.

Then he organizes them, verse 16. Half of them work, the other half defend. Half wrought in the work, they're building, half hold the spears, but then even those that are holding the trowel, so to speak, they've got a sword in the other hand.

It's a principle there. We're called to defend the truth of God and we're called to build for God. Don't take your eye off the ball. You're called to protect the truth. You're to stand firm. You have to hold fast to the truth.