as citizens in the kingdom of God. And when we reflect upon the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and we sing a hymn saying, draw me near precious Lord to the cross where you have died into your precious bleeding side, we need to remember what role that played in the grand scheme of redemption. God was at the cross purchasing us for himself that we would be his faithful servants and labor for him in his kingdom. We are not our own. We were bought with a price. Whether we live or whether we die, we're the Lord's. And so while we live, we need to be giving our lives to the Lord. And so when we come to these passages in the Word of God, like we will be looking at today in Nehemiah chapter 6, it's with the work of atonement, and Christ's redemption, and the work on the cross, and the satisfaction of the wrath of God. It's with all that in the background, meaning it's the foundation of this. We're not the people of God. We have no business even thinking about work and labor in the kingdom of God. Unless we've been redeemed by our God. Unless he's the one who's called us out of darkness into light. Because we know that he has ordained good works that we should walk in them. And so that's what we desire to do as his redeemed people. Please turn with me in your copy of God's Word to the Book of Nehemiah. chapter 6, the first 14 verses, and I'm not going to read all 14 of them now. We'll read them as we go through them, but I will say that we will be studying this passage in two sermons. And the title of the sermon is, The Needs in a Trying Time. Have you ever asked yourself that question? What do I need? Maybe just coming to church tonight. What do I need to take with me? The question is typically asked, doesn't even have to be this really intense situation, but when you expect to find yourself in a situation and you want to make sure you navigate it successfully. So going to church, it might be, do I have my Bible? Do I have what I need? I need my Bible. Or I'm teaching Sunday school. Do I have my Sunday school paraphernalia? Or I'm playing, do I have my violin? Right? All these types of things. You want to be prepared. So there can be these extreme situations. I'm going to be engaging in wilderness travels and expeditions. And I go through and my boys and I do this when we go hiking on the Appalachian Trail. We have a checklist. Do I have this? Do I have this? Do I have this? I need to be prepared for what the situation would bring. And typically we're pretty good with that. Yesterday, Kate and I went to the New York City Public Library. He's working on his senior thesis. And so we get there and he starts fumbling through and I'm thinking to myself, I hope he brought his library card. He did. But right, do I have what I need? In that situation, there weren't many more things you needed other than a computer and a library card. Well, Nehemiah finds himself in a trying situation here. And he navigated it successfully because by God's grace he had what he needed for that situation. And we are going to study his situation and his response in order to use that as a template to determine what our needs are in the trying times in which we live so that we might respond properly and adequately before our God. Well, follow with me as I read. I'm going to start by reading verses 1 through 4 of Nehemiah chapter 6. This is the Word of God. Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arab and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it, although up to that time I had not set up the doors and the gates, Sanballat and Geshem said to me, sent to me, saying, Come, and let us meet together at Hakathirim, in the plain of Ono. But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner." And what we're going to do now is we're going to be going through this passage looking at a series of three different plots, schemes of the enemy, three different plots, and Nehemiah's response to them. And so we have here in the first four verses the first plot and Nehemiah's response. The old enemies are at it again. Some people, they just don't give up. And you almost get the sense Nehemiah expected. He says, Sanballat, Tobiah, and the rest of our enemies, they're just doing their enemy thing again. At this point, the wall is substantially built. Nehemiah 3, if you remember back that far, Nehemiah 3 did indicate that the gates were finished. But that was written from the perspective of a completed project. So they're kind of giving you an overview of everything that was done in the project. It wasn't necessarily intended to be an exact historical time stamp of what was going on at that exact minute. Specifically, the work on the wall before chapters four through six. So we come here and the wall is essentially complete, not 100% complete. Because it says there in verse one, although up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates. So that's the main situation still standing. So the harem that the enemies of Nehemiah, the enemies of God, the enemies of Israel were trying to accomplish and inflict at this point probably isn't primarily connected with the wall. They would have loved, no doubt, to see the gates not go up. But the wall is essentially done. But they know that Nehemiah has other plans. This is just the beginning, probably, of a lot of other things Nehemiah's going to do. And they're not wrong, because after chapter 6, there's still more that Nehemiah does. There's reforms that he engages in. He's an active governor. He's seeking the welfare of the people there. So they probably are thinking a little bit more holistically than just the wall at this point. Although whatever delay they can have with the wall, they would welcome. Their plan is to try and lure Nehemiah out of the city, right? Hey, come on. Come on over. And they probably wanted to physically harm him. It says they intended to do me harm. It doesn't state clearly physical harm, but it's almost certain that it was physical harm. So what exact physical harm they wanted to do, it's uncertain. It might have been something as significant as an assassination, by the way. You know, we're going to plant assassins halfway up. Oh, we didn't do it, but somehow other people, you know, we hired a contract killer to get him on the road. It could have been something that severe. Or maybe they clearly were spreading rumors about him later on. We're going to say maybe they were going to arrest him and just detain him and try to keep him inactive in what he was doing. It's hard to say. But their plan is to try to lure him out of the city. They tried to get him to Hecatherim in the plain of Ono. That's what's mentioned in verse 2. This is probably, it's not 100% certain where this is, but it's probably about 27 miles northwest of Jerusalem. And at this point, you know, if we're thinking in our mind, okay, well, Israel, it's, you know, all the way up there, Judah's all the way down here. In Nehemiah's day, the Jews were not this grand big nation anymore. They were surrounding, in Jerusalem, its surrounding vicinity, a lot of these other areas were occupied to a large extent by Gentile peoples. And so at this point, it would not have been a Jewish territory just 27 miles away. And it seems the enemies wanted to lure him. If it wasn't strictly Gentile turf, it was like on either the borders of the Jewish territory or even in Gentile territory completely. Nehemiah's response is that the work he's engaged in is too great to stop. And this is classic Nehemiah. He's there. He's a man on a mission. It's too great to stop. I don't have time to do this. And so he says he's not going to go down to them. Now these people, they don't give up very easily. They don't take no for an answer very easily. And we read in verse four, they sent to me four times in this way. I mean, until it's abundantly clear, right? Some people, they just don't get the message, right? Until it's abundantly clear, I don't want to see you, right? I mean, and I'm sure Nehemiah sent some kind of You know, response, of course, each time he says, there, I answered them in the same manner, right? A similar type of response, I can't, I'm too busy, I got too many important things to do. But the point is, Nehemiah doesn't change his response, right? Time and time again, they come with the same tactic. Time and time again, Nehemiah comes with the same response. That's plot number one and response number one. That brings us to plot number two in verses five through nine. Follow with me as I read these verses. In the same way, Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me, but there's a little bit different here, with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, it is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports, you wish to become their king. And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, there's a king in Judah. And now the king will hear of these reports, so come and let us take counsel together. Then I sent to him saying, no such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind. For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done. But now, oh God, strengthen my hands. So they sent the fifth letter, but this time they're like, we can't. We're up against a brick wall here, so what do we do? Let's tweak it a little bit. They send an open letter, which means the other ones were closed. Private correspondence. What's the significance of an open letter? Well, listen, if somebody gives you an envelope that's sealed and says, hey, can you give this to so-and-so, you're like, okay, I'll give it to them. Somebody gives you an open letter, right? Hey, can you give this to so-and-so? It's going to be really hard not to read it. Right? And so probably the messenger is like walking. I'm not saying he did this exactly, but, hey, I got a letter from Nehemiah, you know. And probably the hope was as he's walking through, people will hear about this. And they'll hear about this slanderous accusation. And listen, we live in a day and age this is not hard to imagine. You start a rumor, next thing everybody believes it. Like the whole thing is fake news. That's what they're trying to do. It's not new. Okay, it's unprecedented. Okay, Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, they're ahead of their time, trying to spread these rumors. And so they're hoping that this open letter would become more widely known, that people would hear about these things, completely unsubstantiated, but that didn't matter. You planted the seed of doubt. People now start thinking of Nehemiah in these ways. They didn't have to prove anything for the public to believe it. People are people. The letter states that everyone knows that you're planning to rebel and that you're looking to become king. The letter also claimed that Nehemiah had set up prophets who were saying in one form or another, there's a king in Judah. God's anointed Nehemiah. And so they're claiming that he's abusing the prophetic office. That's what they're doing. They're saying, Nehemiah, you're taking these prophets and you're using them for your own ends. You don't care about what the Lord says. You're just saying, hey, say this. You're putting the words in their mouth. You're not letting them say the words that God speaks. So what is this? This is blackmail. This is blackmail. They're trying to get him to agree to a meeting, and they're trying to use these subversive, underhanded methods to do so. Now, all this language about the rebellion and maybe you're doing this, that had some precedent. It had worked to some extent previously back in Ezra chapter 4. Turn with me back to Ezra 4. Maybe they were dredging up some old tactics. Ezra chapter 4. Follow with me as I read verses 13 to 16. This is a letter that was written to Artaxerxes by the enemies of the Jews in Zerubbabel's day. Ezra chapter 4 verse 13, now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt, that's Jerusalem they're talking about, and the walls finish, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired. Now because we eat the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king's dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king, in order that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. You will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces. and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old. That was why the city was laid waste. We make known to the king that if the city is rebuilt and its walls finished, you will then have no possession in the province beyond the river." Now, there was, I mean, Israel was a fiercely independent group of people, right? So, it's not that there was like absolutely no truth to what was being said there, but there's clearly some exaggeration and imagination in that accusation. But it worked, and the king sent a letter, you got to stop. And so it stopped. So here we have Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem, and they're dredging up some of these old tactics, blackmailing Nehemiah, trying to get him to a meeting. But Nehemiah is no dummy. He realizes what they're doing. And in fact, we could say they don't intend him not to. They want him to know what they're trying to do. And they want to make him afraid. Maybe he's afraid, he'll be a little bit more reasonable. Maybe then we can work with him. Or maybe fear will just cause him to slow down or stop. He won't be so zealous. He won't be such a fanatic. Nehemiah, we don't mind. We don't mind you kind of doing whatever you're doing, but in some modern day 70s language, we don't want you to be a Jesus freak. Right? Just do a little bit, but don't be really radical about it. Well, Nia's response is a stronger resolve. Now, in verse 9, and I will say this, I've come to the conclusion, I'm not absolutely 100% convinced, but I do think that verse 9b is probably not a prayer. Maybe some of you have it in your Bibles. In my ESV, the words say, but now, O God, strengthen my hands, but there's a footnote that says the Hebrew lacks O God. And so other versions use the words, they add the words, and he prayed. Well, it doesn't, the word prayer is not there. It's the translators basically saying, this looks to us like a prayer, and so we want the readers, the English readers, to think of it as a prayer, so we're gonna include the word prayer or the words, oh God, and things like that. Now, there's no textual support for the words, you know, oh my God, or oh God, or I prayed. And the formula doesn't necessarily match the other prayer formulas in the book of Nehemiah. So I'm not saying there's no way it's a prayer. But if I had to take a position, which I'm preaching on, so I guess I do, I'd say it's not a prayer. It's probably better translated something like this. But in fact, I continued with even greater determination. or, on the contrary, it strengthens my hands." In other words, they're hoping we can weaken his resolve. And he's saying, you know what it did? It only strengthened my resolve. They wanted me to grow weak and timid. I grew strong and bold in the work. Now, obviously, if you went to Nehemiah and said, well, Nehemiah had that happen, it's because God equipped me and enabled me to do that. So, again, these things aren't mutually exclusive. No doubt Nehemiah was praying for strength. No doubt, even if these aren't words of a prayer, he was praying something very similar or maybe even exact to these words, knowing Nehemiah. So, Nehemiah's response is a stronger resolve. That's plot number two in its response. That brings us now to plot number three in its response, in verses 10 through 14. We read this, verse 10, Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, let us meet together in the house of God within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night. But I said, should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in. And I understood and saw that God had not sent him. But he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose, he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. And here is a prayer. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, oh my God, according to these things that they did. And also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid. Well, Nehemiah goes to visit this man named Shemaiah, who appears to be a prophet. Now, why did Nehemiah go to visit him? On the surface, Nehemiah was reluctant to go to visit anybody who he didn't think was a friend. So it seems, I think we can consider Shemaiah was probably, at one point, who Nehemiah had some regard for. And he might have been a prophet who turned rogue. But, you know, we don't know exactly why he was confined to his home either. But again, it's possible or maybe even probable that this man had been a faithful prophet at one point. It's hard to tell. But Nehemiah doesn't expect duplicity. I don't think he's going there saying, OK, I know this guy's a bad guy. He's a bad egg. And I'm going to find out right when I walk in that he has a bad message for me. But as he hears the message, Nehemiah's like, something's weird about this. Something doesn't make sense. Shemaiah speaks a prophecy to Nehemiah. Now, verse 10b, in my ESV, the Bible I have, it doesn't show up this way. Maybe your Bible has it. But it's poetic. I don't know if some of your Bibles show it that way. So it was delivered to Nehemiah in a prophetic form. In other words, when Shemaiah said these things, it would have been clear to Nehemiah that Shemaiah is trying to convey it like it's a prophecy. The message is that the people are coming to kill Nehemiah. That's not outlandish. So, Nehemiah, I'm here to help you. I have a word from God for you. You need to go. Go in the temple right now. Quick. Hide. They're going to get you. That's kind of the spirit of it. And you might have had a situation like this, where there was something impending, you start to panic, and then you end up doing things that you didn't really think about, and the next thing you're like, how did I get here? Well, Nehemiah's going to think. The fact that somebody's out to kill him, not outlandish. People were looking to do him harm. But the proposed solution to that had warning bells going off in Nehemiah's mind. Something's weird about this, this doesn't make sense. And the point is that Nehemiah is not a priest. And the hiding in the temple, there were provisions to go and go to parts of the temple for refuge. That's not what's being referred to here though. This is going into some sort of inner court, some private place that was reserved for priests where he could hide. And he wasn't allowed access to that part of the temple. So Nehemiah realizes that Shemaiah was not sent by God and he rejects the prophecy. Doesn't matter that the man might have said, thus saith the Lord. Doesn't matter that he delivered it in a prophetic form. Doesn't matter that he delivered it with maybe a prophetic urgency, Nehemiah. Or even conveying to Nehemiah by gestures and by his facial expression, I care about you and you need to do this, you gotta save your life, Nehemiah, right? None of that moved Nehemiah. He thought about the content and it contradicted God's revealed will. And so he rejects it. The false prophet was known by the falsity of the message. Now the reference to Sanballat and Tobiah has a couple of explanations, right? He says there in verse 12 that he realized that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. Well, how does he know that? Well, it could have been that Nehemiah's just got a good head on his shoulders, right? It's using deductive logic, right? So there's, I have Sanballat and Tobiah, they're my enemies, okay? This is a false prophecy. The only reason that this prophet has to speak a false prophecy is if he's being persuaded by my enemies. Conclusion, Santa Bella and Tobiah hired him. It could have been something like that. It's possible that he did discover it before the false prophecy was made, not out of the question, and he went there to address it. And so it's possible, the text doesn't really present it that way, but it's possible that he knew about it going into that. He had heard rumors about this prophet and what he might say. But anyway, that seems to be two of the possible explanations. Or maybe even after, and after he's thinking about it, and after he'd rejected it, it becomes known to him that Sandoval and Tobias had hired him. And he's just summarizing the account here. But anyway, Nehemiah's response seems to be twofold. He says, and I'm not putting these necessarily in order, he says, a man in my position, I can't turn tail and act like a coward. You're asking me, you're asking me to abandon my post, abandon my people, act like a scaredy cat. I'm not going to do it. I'm the leader. It's not appropriate for me to go into the temple anyway. He doesn't state that explicitly, but that's behind what he's saying. If Nehemiah was a 21st century Italian from New York City, he would have said, forget about it. Right? It's not even an option. It's not even on the table. Nehemiah doesn't hear this and there's no hesitation at all. Should such a man as I run away? What man such as I could go into the temple and live? In other words, and that might be a reference to what man such as I, not being a priest, could go in there and live there, like stay there. Nehemiah further elaborates on the purposes behind the false prophecy. They wanted to make him afraid. So that out of fear he would disobey God. Listen, fear is a powerful motive. Some of us know that we've disobeyed God because we've been afraid. To our shame. Fear is a powerful motive. The things that we do or don't do, which we never thought we would do or not do, because we're afraid of something. We're afraid of, we're afraid of being single. We're afraid of being rejected. We're afraid of losing our job. Right? All these things. And we're afraid. And then we do things, it's like, we know the Word of God prohibits this. And so maybe they thought he would disobey God out of fear. As a result of his disobedient hiding, then they could basically take and launch a bunch of headlines the next day. Nehemiah abandons his people. Nehemiah disobeys God. And they could completely discredit him. And you better believe that they were just waiting, waiting to make his actions public. They were not going to cover anything with a blanket of love. I mean, every edge of the Jewish town here would have known about this. And so then it says they also would have taunted him, right? Nehemiah, you've been such a staunch proponent of obeying God. You're so rigid, righteously rigid. You're a goody two-shoes, you know, in the way you obey God. Oh, look what you just did now. What about the law prohibiting people from going into the temple? What kind of leader are you, right? They would have taunted him in this way. And Nehemiah closes with a prayer to God. This prayer is a prayer for God to take appropriate action against Sanballat and Tobiah, as well as Noadiah and other prophets who were trying to make him afraid. So we find out that there were a bunch of people in league with Sanballat and Tobiah, including those who professed to be the mouthpiece of God. It's hard when the people of God or professed people of God, maybe we should say, also turn against you. It's one thing if self-proclaimed adversaries do. It's another thing when people who are supposedly on your side, who are fellow citizens in the kingdom of God do it. And that's what Nehemiah was up against. Well, that's an outline of the narrative, an explanation of the narrative. These three plots and schemes and Nehemiah's responses. Now, we come to the things that we need. What's needed for the hour? What did Nehemiah need for the hour that tried him? Well, first of all, there was the need for discernment. Time and again, Nehemiah was able to sense what was going on, right? You don't get the sense here that he's clueless. He's picking up on what's happening. He's aware of what's happening. He's figuring out what's going on. He has discernment. For example, in 2B, verse 2B, he realized that they wanted to harm him. How? Possibly it's because they wanted to meet far away. If you really want to meet with me, and if it's so important, then come and meet with me here. Why are you making me go there? Something fishy about that. You're so eager, you sent me four times, but you're not coming here. That might have put, that might have signaled to him something. Also, some people suggest, if Nehemiah was the traitor that they claimed he was, who wants to be seen having secret meetings with a traitor? It's like, you don't think I'm a traitor. Something's weird here. You're not going to call a secret meeting with me if you really think I'm a traitor. That would destroy you as well, possibly. But in one way or another, God gave him the spirit of discernment. And he was able to figure out what was going on. Second example, by sending an open letter, what are they indicating? They're purposely trying to spread rumors. Now, this one doesn't take too much discernment to figure out. But it does take some discernment, right? Why are they sending an open letter? This is not a sincere letter. This is not an honest letter filled with integrity. This is obvious slander and libel, and Nehemiah perceived their plan. And then lastly, The fact that the prophecy was in direct contradiction to the Word of God tipped him off. He had that discernment, because he knew the Bible. The Bible informed his discernment. And so he was able to say, this doesn't make sense. It doesn't pass the biblical smell test. And it doesn't pass the test of the principles of godly leadership laid out in the Bible. And so Nehemiah figured out what they were up to. So time and again, he's able to sense what they're doing. Discernment. Brothers and sisters, in this age, when the forces of evil are doing all they can to prevent and impede the forward progress of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, we need discernment like Nehemiah. We don't want to be tricked. That's what the enemy's out to do, to take us for fools, to trick us, to bewitch us, to get us to do things we have no business doing. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11 we read this, Do not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices. He's out there, he's trying to outwit us, he's trying to deceive us, he's trying to dupe us. The Word of God explains his devices. And so we're supposed to use discernment so that we're not caught off guard and we can see, I know what's going on here. Well there's a couple of ways in which we need discernment. First of all, I thought about putting this in your notes, but if you're taking notes, here's the list of things we need discernment related to. First, we need to discern which people are dangerous. We need to discern which people are dangerous. Sanballat and Tobiah, they wanted to do Nehemiah harm. And the same is true today. There are people in the world, they're not our friends. They're not the friends of our soul. They will not do us spiritual good. They are those who would in one way or another, however innocently they might profess it, they will harm our souls. And they will keep us from serving God the way that we ought. And this is the fact. Some people will do immense harm to our souls if we let them. And the Bible lays out some of these. I just jotted down a couple. The Bible probably lists, and maybe you can think of other categories, but think about false teachers. Think about unconverted spouses. Proverbs talks about promiscuous women. And there's others we could provide examples for that have the potential to do great harm to your soul. Proverbs says, he who walks with the wise will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed. People can do you great spiritual harm. We need to have discernment which people are dangerous people. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33, Paul writes, do not be deceived, bad company ruins good morals. And oftentimes, we think about this with young people. Who are you becoming friends with? Who are you starting to date? Who are you hanging out with? And it has immense application to people in the teenage years. And when you're thinking about who to marry and who to hang out with, immense application there. So many kids have gotten themselves killed just being in the wrong crowd. But it applies to everybody here. And Nehemiah was making decisions. Who am I going to be spending time with? Who am I going to go meet with? And who am I not going to be spending time with? Who is going to be harming me? Who is going to be helping me? We need to discern which people are dangerous. Second, we need to discern correct accusations from slander. Now sometimes we are accused of something and our accuser is correct. We don't want to look at this and be like, when people come and accuse us, we're like Nehemiah, they're always wrong. That is blatantly false. Okay? You can't universalize this. Sometimes, to our shame, people come and accuse us, and they're right. We disobeyed, we sinned, we violated God's law in one way or another, right? We did something that was inappropriate. Well, in that case, we need to be able to discern, this is a correct accusation, and I need to respond appropriately to it, in whatever way God would lay out in His Word. But other times we are accused of something and it's slander. It has no basis in reality or in the word of God. Not that we'd respond to people necessarily using the exact words that Nehemiah would say, which is essentially, you completely fabricated this, right? That's like Nehemiah's words, complete fabrication. But we need to discern correct accusations from slander. It will profoundly affect the way we respond. It profoundly affected the way Nehemiah responded. Because it had no basis in reality, he took a certain course of action, meaning he completely ignored it and kept going on his work. That is completely inappropriate if it has a basis in reality. We need help from God to discern. Now also, and I want to touch on this briefly, don't forget about accusations from the accuser of the brethren, Satan. Now his accusation is often true. But remembering the work of Christ on your behalf, and that your guilt is then removed, and your sin covered, makes all the difference in the world. So even when Satan is accusing us before God, right? So, not that we're always aware, but sometimes we sense his accusations. You've done this, you've done that, you're guilty of this, you're guilty of that. Yes, I have. And I'm washed by the blood of the Lamb. So you can't stop me in the work I'm doing for the Kingdom of God. Assuming you have a contrite heart and you're repenting of the sin. Revelation 12 verse 10 says this, The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb. They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb. That's the second discernment we need. Third, we need to discern true friends from enemies. We need to discern true friends from enemies. Nehemiah interacted with people who he probably, at one time, thought were true people of God, people like Shemaiah. And he refers to some of these people as prophets. He doesn't explicitly say false prophets. So it's possible that these people had, in one way or another, been engaged in some acts of true prophecy, but then had, like Balaam, turned and been bought with money and started saying false prophecies. So Nehemiah interacted with people who claimed to be true people of God. I mean, these people would have said, I'm a prophet of God. I'm bringing you a message from God, a message from Jehovah. I'm your friend, Nehemiah. You've got to listen to me. You have to heed me. I'm looking out for your good, for the good of your soul. I go to the same temple you go to. I live in the same city you live in. I have the same blood that you have. We're all one. We're on the same team. That's what they would have been saying, things like that. Nehemiah interacted with people who became friendly with the people of God also, people like Tobiah. This guy, yes, he's an enemy, but Tobiah is like one of these guys in the middle. Look at Nehemiah 6, verse 19. It says, and they, that is many people in Judah, especially nobles in Judah, and they, chapter 6 verse 19, they spoke of his, that is Tobiah's good deeds in my presence, and reported my words to him, and Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. So Tobiah here, he's got connections with people in Israel. Nehemiah might have looked at him as an enemy, but when asked the general consensus, they would have said, you know, Tobias got some rough edges, but he's a good guy. were in league with him in various ways. He was somebody who was able to walk around Jerusalem and people weren't spitting at him, throwing tomatoes at him, right? He would have professed to be a friend. Now turn with me also to Nehemiah chapter 13 where we see this even more clear that he was in the good graces of powerful people in Jerusalem. Nehemiah 13 verses 4 and 5. Now this is while Nehemiah is gone. says, "'Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levite singers and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. And then it says later, look down at verse 8, he says, and I was very angry and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. In other words, Nehemiah comes back and they're letting, they're letting Tobiah live in parts of the temple. It's like, are you kidding me? Okay, this guy was to some extent a friend with many people in Jerusalem. Okay? And so there's someone who would become friendly with the people of God. It's like, well, Nehemiah, everybody else is friendly with him. Why aren't you friendly with him? Because not everyone who thinks that they are a Christian, not everyone who claims to be a Christian, and not everyone who is friendly with Christians is themself a Christian. And I don't say that happily. I wish that every person who named the name of Christ truly was a Christian. That is not the case. And so we need to discern who are true friends from enemies. You could walk into a church and say, OK, well, just because the person If a member or claims to be united to Christ, if they start saying things that contradict the Word of God, if they start encouraging you in ways that are not in accordance with the Word of God, they're not your friend. In 2 Timothy 4, verses 14 and 15, Paul references a man who seems was in the company of the people of God, Alexander the coppersmith. He says, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm, and the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, he says to Timothy. I mean, this guy was in, to some extent, in around the circles of Christians there. And Paul says, beware of this guy, he's dangerous. Timothy, you have to discern true friends from enemies. And we need to do the same thing. And then fourthly, we need to be able to discern what messages are from God. We need to discern what messages are from God. Just because someone claims the Bible teaches something, doesn't mean it does. Just because someone claims that God wants them or you to do something, doesn't mean He does. How do you discern what messages are from God? Someone comes up to you, the Bible really says that you should be doing such and such. Interesting. Or, you know, God's been telling me that I need to do this and I think you need to do this with me. People talk like this. How do you discern what messages are from God? Well, if you're Nehemiah, it's not, again, it's not stated explicitly, but this is clearly what he did. He said, okay, I'm hearing a message from God. I'm hearing, and I'm going to discern the spirit. And I'm going to compare it with scriptures. Does it agree with teaching in the scriptures? Again, we're always going back to the Bible. That's what Nehemiah is doing. Does it agree? It doesn't agree. It's not from God. I don't care that you have the name tag outside your office saying that you're a prophet of God. It doesn't matter. You're not from God. Does it lead me to obey the scriptures? Nehemiah recognized, this is going to make me look like a coward, someone who is distrustful of God, abandoning my post. You're not leading me in the ways of righteousness. You're not from God. In 1 John 4, we read this. Beloved, do not trust every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God. In other words, he does teach true doctrine. And every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. We belong to God. And John, I think, is here speaking about him in the apostolic office. We belong to God and anyone who knows God listens to us. In other words, listens to the apostolic teaching. Well, anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. Means, rejects the apostolic teaching. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. And those words ring true for us today. You want to know if it's a spirit of truth or error? Compare it to the apostolic teaching. And the apostolic teaching was itself built on the Old Testament. That's just another way of saying, does it compare with the Bible? We need to be able to discern what messages are from God. Think of the disaster Nehemiah would have created if he listened to those prophets. If he got it wrong, if he just, oh, you're a prophet, let me go and do what you say. Let me go and listen to you. Oh, wow, you know, you got the credentials, so you must be right. And I'll say that even for you sitting here listening to me. The fact that you stand behind on a stage a foot and a half above and behind a pulpit with a microphone being live streamed, that doesn't mean anything if I'm not teaching from the Word of God. And so it's your job, it's your responsibility to test the spirits and to measure everything by the Word of God. And we're required to test because some people and their messages can be tricky to discern. can really be. And I've come across false teaching, and I've read it, and I'm like, okay, I know something's off about this, but it's hard to let go of sometimes. We need wisdom from God. There's a degree with apostolic teaching. There's a degree with apostolic morals. And we need to remember, at the end of the day, it's God who gives discernment. And 1 Kings 3.9, Solomon, he asked for discernment. He's about to become king of the great nation. He has a great job in front of him. He says, He said, I need to know what's good and what's right, and what's false and bad. I need that discernment. And he goes to God, and God gave it to him. And ultimately, the only way we're going to be able to discern appropriately is if we have the Spirit of God enabling us to discern. So we need to pray, Lord, give me a spirit of discernment. And we need to be looking into the Bible, because the Spirit's not going to be able to give us the discernment if we don't have the right materials, right? You're never going to be able to discern truth from error if you don't know the Bible. The Spirit's going to drive us back there. Well, that's need number one. We're not going to get to need number three, as I can see from the clock today. So we'll go on to need number two, the need for continual vigilance. The need for continual vigilance. The enemy tried one scheme after another, right? In this narrative, we have three plots and schemes right in a row. They try the, hey, come meet with us four times. That didn't work. Send an open letter. That doesn't work. The false prophets, right? I mean, one scheme after another, they're creative. They're persistent. Got to give them Credit, in one sense, for that, right? These people didn't give up easily. And this is after everything we've already read about earlier in the book. This is not the first time they come on the scene. They've been busy before. The point is, the enemy doesn't take a break. The enemy did not take a break. And every time, every time, Nehemiah was ready. He was never caught off guard. He was watching. He was aware. He himself was vigilant. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, our enemies are working tirelessly. They are working incessantly. Think of Satan's dealings with Job. If Satan gave up after one thing, the book of Job would have looked a lot different. But he comes one after another, after another, I mean just completely crushing everything around him, crushing everything in his life. Because Satan knows, and this is one of his schemes of which we are not ignorant, he knows that it's usually the multiplication of trials right after another that makes them more difficult. That's what's really going to try us. And so he works incessantly again, and again, and again, and again. It's like the battering ram, right? Very infrequently does the castle wall fall after it's hit once. But it's the continual repetition again, and again, and again, and again. And slowly this cracks, and this cracks, right? Continual vigilance is needed. Think of Satan's dealings with Jesus. All those temptations, but it doesn't say he left him forever. At the end of the account of the temptation, it says he left him until he had an opportune time. Satan wasn't done with Jesus. We just have that one record. That's like the one great showdown, you could say, but Satan was not done with Jesus. He tried to overthrow him other times. And this is how Satan deals with all of God's people. 1 Peter 5.8, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's always at his deadly task, trying to find some Christian who's off guard. Some Christian who's being lazy, not watching, unaware. In Matthew 26, verse 41, it's not just Satan that we have to watch out for. In Matthew 26, verse 41, Jesus said to his disciples, We can say that the weakness of our bodies can be transformed by the sin remaining in us to be an enemy of our soul. Something Jesus warned his disciples against. He says you've got to watch. If you don't watch, you're going to fall into temptation. Galatians 6 verse 1, Paul writes, This is probably a reference to watching because of the remaining sin that still abides in us. Not the weakness of the body, but just the remaining flesh that still abides in us, that could break out into actual sin at any moment. And this we know, sadly, too often. There's still the flesh. And we are not even thinking that there's an occasion for sin. And next thing we know, there's that sinful thought. There's that sinful reaction. There's a sinful deed, the sinful word, right? Because we weren't watching. Because the flesh can break out at any moment. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. The continual attacks on Nehemiah, they're not unusual. It's not like we look at this and say, wow, this is an odd situation. The people of God never face this. Basically, when it's us, it's one and done. If you've been a Christian for even an hour, you know that this is normal. This is par for the course for Christians. These attacks are the norm for all of God's people at all times. And that's why there's a need for constant, continual vigilance. We must be like Nehemiah and never be caught off guard. Again, if they caught him off guard, if he let down his awareness and walked into a situation, it would have overthrown the whole enterprise. We must work to be watchful and aware, but once again, God gives vigilance. Praise the Lord. Now, how does he do it? When he transforms us right at the outset, he makes us people who are watchful. Right when we're regenerated, right when we become Christians, he transforms us from people who are part of the night, who are marked by sleepiness and drowsiness and drunkenness, spiritually speaking and physically maybe, to people who are of the day, we're watchful, we're aware. We read about this in 1 Thessalonians 5. So then let us not sleep as others do. And he's speaking about spiritual sleep. And what he means by sleep is just this unawareness of what's going on. Not perceiving what's happening. Attacks are coming and you're not prepared. Let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night, but since we belong to the day, let us be sober." In other words, he's saying, you, as the people of God, you're radically different. You're of the day. He's made you awake people, people who see things clearly, who understand things clearly. Act in accordance with your new nature. Don't act like a person in the dark when you're in the light. And so when we are transformed by God, when we're saved, we're brought out of that and we're put into the day. We're made, in a sense, we're given spiritual awareness right off the bat. Doesn't mean it doesn't need to be cultivated, but we have that principle implanted within us. The fundamental transformation of our belonging, we belong to the day, is a work done by God that makes us a vigilant people. So there's a need for vigilance. Well, dear brothers and sisters, I have one more point, but I'm going to call it quits there. But we have, so maybe this will be more than two sermons, we'll see. But the point here is, as I mentioned right at the outset, is that we need to think about what we need. Are we going to be productive citizens in the Kingdom of God? There's things that we need to do if we're going to be faithful, if we're going to be productive, and we're going to be coming across situations that are going to try us. We need to make sure we have what we need. We need to have discernment. We need to cry out to God for discernment. We need to be continually vigilant. We need to cry out to God to make us continually vigilant. So that when we find ourselves in situations like Nehemiah was in our day, our 21st century version of it, we respond the way Nehemiah did. And the work of the kingdom doesn't suffer on our account. Amen. Let's close with a word of prayer. Most gracious God and heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that we even have a part in the work of the kingdom of God. And though it sometimes seems in our hands to advance so slowly, Lord, we know one day we're going to be shining like the sun. And one day there's going to be a kingdom that Jesus Christ reigns over, that has conquered all, and that he will be the one who fills all in all. And so, Lord, we pray that you would help us to take our job seriously. Help us to be those who, by your grace and by the power of your Spirit, are ready and are prepared for the trying times that we encounter in our lives. We thank you for the example of saints in the past, men like Nehemiah, who took being a servant of the living God seriously and who are committed to the work of the Kingdom. And though the things that you called him to in that stage of redemptive history are different from the things that we're called to, the fundamental principles are the same. And so we ask that you would help us to be people of discernment. Give us discerning minds so that like Solomon, we can determine good from evil. And we pray also that you would make us people who are continually vigilant, that we would never be caught off guards. Lord, help us, we pray. We know these things come from you, and we desire, and so we ask of you, that you would do these things in us, that we may operate to the praise of the glory of your grace. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.