Nehemiah chapter 4, if you brought your Bible with you. If you have your phone, leave it in your pocket. I feel like putting a sign out there, although we have some people here that are on call and things like that. This is a phone-free environment. I don't know about you, but I enjoy the phone-free environment. I continue to remember Brother Dale's family, Brother Dale Goss, Christie, Miranda, and Dalton. His mother went home to be with the Lord last night, had been fighting some infection and things like that. He prayed and they made the decisions that they needed to make, and the Lord saw fit to take her home. And in talking with him both yesterday at length and then again today, it's sad but glad. Which is a great testimony for those of us that have saved loved ones that we're sad that they're gone, but we're glad that they're gone. The Lord said, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. God sees something in death that we don't see. We see the leftover haul, but He sees the soul finally cut free and flying up through eternity and going as from the body and present with the Lord. People say, what do you think that trip's like? I don't know, but it's got to be the most magnificent thing you could possibly imagine. to go to sleep and wake up in the arms of Jesus. I can't even put that into words how it must be. Do you think you're traveling through, like Paul said, absent from the body, present with the Lord. It looks like it's instantaneous. In 1 Corinthians 15, he said, suddenly in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed. That's what we'd like to see take place in the nursery when we get ready to open that back up, is that we will all be changed. I wish it would happen in the twinkling of an eye, but sometimes it takes a little longer than that. But how much easier it is to comfort someone when you know where that loved one is. So I appreciate you being here. Nehemiah 4, just a few verses here this morning to try to help set the table for where I'd like to take us. I think that many Christians have the misconception that now that they're saved, their problems are over. And now that they're saved, the contention even among the brethren is over with. And nonetheless, you're beginning to get mocked and made fun of a little bit more than you were even before March of this year. And as a result, because of your position on certain things, sometimes you don't know what am I supposed to do or how am I supposed to handle it. Oftentimes, we think that the way to resolve the problem is to go into throwing fists or whatever it might be, or throwing insults, but I'll try to show you from a biblical perspective that it's actually a good thing when they're speaking ill of you. And I can maybe show you from the Bible the right response so that you don't have to feel intimidated when somebody says things about you, because I hate to tell you this, but the Bible says in Luke 17, it is impossible, but that offenses will come. Now, he warns the one whom they come from, woe unto him from whom the offenses come. Better for him than a millstone be hung about his neck and cast into the sea than to offend one of these little ones, and so on and so forth. But you need to understand that just because you're saved, it doesn't make you immune from persecution. I didn't say prosecution. I said, persecution. As a Christian, if you're gonna live in the day and time you are and try to do anything for the Lord, you need to understand there is going to be diametric, diabolical opposition to anything you're trying to do in living and serving the Lord. Not just in church, but in your personal life. It came to pass, verse number one, when Samballot heard that we built the wall, he was wroth and he took great indignation and he mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren in 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 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. Notice the sarcasm that's coming, the mocking, the belittling, the making fun, like they did with Jesus when he was being crucified. Here, O God, here's Nehemiah's response, For we are despised, and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey to 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, the people had a mind to work. And it came to pass that when Simbalat and Tobiah and the Arabians, the Ammonites and Ashdodites... Funny how you make strange bedfellows out of people that are opposing the things that are right to do, isn't it? Like Pilate came together with Herod. So all of a sudden, those that were against each other, now they're together because they have a common enemy, and that common enemy here happens to be the Lord. The Bible says in verse number 8, "...and conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto God and set a watch against them day and night because of them." Brother Larry, you pray. Ask the Lord to help us, would you please? Thank you. You may be seated. If you would please, as you're being seated, turn to Genesis chapter 2. And if you've been at church here any amount of time, you know, by the way, happy birthday to my wife. 70 years, I'm glad you're here for this birthday. I don't care if it's 70 or 75, I'm glad that you're here. I shudder to think where I'd be if you weren't. You're a huge part, a key component to anything that's been accomplished with the Lord using me and he sent me you as a helpmate and I appreciate that and I don't mind publicly saying that. Some of you ladies may think it'd be easy, you probably don't think that, to live with me, but at any rate, I appreciate what you did for her, that's very kind, that gives her good reading material. Genesis chapter number two, we're familiar with the law of first mention. That's simply a Bible study rule that says if you see it in the first of the Bible, it'll generally hold true throughout the rest of the Bible. There are certain exceptions, but not many. And so what we see right off the bat, right after the creation of man, look in Genesis chapter 2 verse 23, Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of the man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Why does the Lord put that in there? To show you a contrast of what transpires. Look what happens after the fall. Look in verse number 9, 3-9. The Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. Why'd you hide yourself? Well, in one point I wasn't ashamed and now I am ashamed. We know now that as you grow older, as a little child you're born, you don't have the sense to even know the difference in being naked and clothed. And then after a while you grow up and you learn that you're supposed to wear clothes and that kind of a thing. And then being naked or going to the doctor or whatever, it's a shameful thing. One of the first things that they do and they take over another nation or they take over a village or a town as they take people's clothing away from them because it naturally produces a shame. But something happened between Genesis chapter 2 at the very end and Genesis chapter 3 when the Lord came along. There was the intervention of an individual that came in and slanderously ask a question of Eve, who happened to be looking at a tree. Make no mistake about it, the enemy is very wise at how he approaches you, and he knows exactly how to talk to you when he sees you looking or doing certain things. He knows exactly how to be appealing to you, to make you consider something that you wouldn't otherwise consider. Don't think that when the devil showed up, he showed up with two horns and a pitchfork with a long pointy tail, and you know, his red flannel pajamas and that kind of a thing. Understand that when he showed up, he knew exactly how to approach the woman by talking to her, by questioning what God said. That holds true all the way out here in the book of Nehemiah, because right off the bat you have Sambalad and Tobiah, the Ammonite, that comes up and they're teamed up with these other individuals because those that were originally diabolically opposed to each other are now together on the same page because they're coming against the nation of Israel. Well, what happened is, is Eve sitting there looking at the tree, standing there looking at the tree, laying there looking at the tree. The Bible doesn't say, it does say that she saw that the tree was good for food. Well, when the devil caught her looking, he didn't walk up and go, now you know you shouldn't be doing that, but if you want to. Please understand that when these individuals approach you, it is for the sole purpose of trying to bring disreport or to bring ridicule toward the One that saved you. Understand the attack was not because He hated Eve. He hated the One that created Eve. So before you take what I'm going to say in just a few moments personally, understand that you're not as important as you may think you are. You're simply a pawn on a chessboard. But if the devil can use you to get at him, he will certainly use you to get at him. If he can bring a bad reputation to him by you, he will certainly use you to do so. So in the garden we know, as we do in Matthew chapter number 4, when the Lord comes up out of the baptism, the devil takes him out into the wilderness to tempt him, and then he begins to mock and belittle and make fun, using the Scriptures inappropriately divided and inappropriately quoted by taking things out and leaving things, or putting things in, The same exact thing that Eve did in the garden, the devil did in the wilderness of temptation in Matthew chapter 4. By messing with what God said. So the hard thing for us to understand is if God said it, that settles it, and that's where it needs to be left. But you do need to understand that you can't do what God wants you to do without there being criticism along the way. As I mentioned to you at the beginning while we were standing before we read, I told you the Bible says it's impossible but that offenses will come. The offenses are to be coming because you're doing what God tells you to do, not because you're doing something ignorant or stupid that causes you to get attacked because you chose to pick a side on something. Maybe it's political or maybe it's for your own well-doing. Those attacks are natural in the flesh, that's not spiritual. You understand you can take an opposing side in a political argument, and just because they don't agree with you politically, and they begin to hammer you, or they begin to slander you, or they begin to have conflict with you, that doesn't mean, and I don't want you to take that thought in mind, that you're taking one for the team, that you're getting hammered for Jesus' sake. What I'm trying to show you is, is that if you live for Jesus, you are not going to go unnoticed. If you're going to live for Jesus Christ, you don't have to go looking for a fight. The fight's going to come to you. And so if you would understand that principle as I try to walk you through this passage, you'll understand how to handle your critics because you're going to have critics. Now I wish I could tell every one of you to have the hide of a rhinoceros and everything would be okay for you, but I hate to tell you this, a lot of you don't and a lot of you never will. And I know what many people say, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me, but words do hurt. And words can be detrimental, and the natural response in the flesh is to always want to defend myself. I remember a preacher friend of mine, he's gone now, James Aloysius, that's not his real middle name, but that's what we called him, James Aloysius Lentz, he was preaching one time, and he was dealing along the lines with this subject. And here's what he said, he said, a man came to me and he said to me, he said, preacher they're lying about me. And he began to list the things they were lying about. And Jim's response to him was, thank God they're not telling the truth. There's things that we know about ourself that God knows about us that we're glad our enemies don't know. And so while the enemies may be stretching the truth, or maybe even being downright slanderous, the response is not to always be, well, let me defend myself. Because when you defend yourself, you're adding credibility to their argument. The Lord said when they accused Him, in Herod's case, when he spoke to Jesus, Jesus didn't even respond. When the Lord was reviled, He stood as a sheep before a shearer as is dumb, and He didn't respond. When reviled, He reviled not again. But man, is that hard to do. Answering our critics has become the modern day sport, because we've watched so much television and so many things, that when somebody says something to us, now we even have a fun name for it in sports, we call it trash talking. Some of you are really good at it. And I'm not saying that as a compliment. Some of you think you're on a basketball court, or on a football field, or on a soccer field, or on a tennis court, or on a fairway somewhere. The way that you talk to and about other people on a regular... You have become professional critics. And then you hide it behind, I'm just joking. Am I getting anybody's attention at all? I'm sure none of you would do that. It's probably for the people that aren't here, you know, that they didn't want to come out because they might catch the virus. You probably have already said that about them already today. You're the ones that were brave enough to come. The ones that didn't come, they're just not quite as spiritual as you are. They don't trust the Lord like you do. I'm just saying there's all kind of ways to even say things that are truth, but to say them in a kind of way that criticizes those who appear to be at a lower rung on the spiritual ladder than you and I are. This message is not for the politicians, this is not for the mad owls of the world, or the Schlesingers of the world, or for whoever your favorite person is on whatever network you watch as far as the news is concerned. I mean, it looks as if we are getting our doctrine from the news media instead of the Bible. Because what we've learned to do is, is we've learned to respond and to revile when they revile, and we've gotten more vile than they have gotten, and we are going to win the argument at all costs. We're going to have the last word. It is epidemic in our church, it's epidemic in our homes, and it is now epidemic in our country, where Christians are standing up and saying, you need to speak up and speak out. Well, let's look and see what the Bible says along those lines. The Lord did speak out against the Pharisees when he was preaching against them from the pulpit, but the Lord was real careful in other situations when he was simply responding to the criticism that was coming his way. You may not know this by now, but if you've been saved longer than six months, you know people are gonna make fun of or mock what they call here in the South, your religion. And what you have to understand is, is there is a biblical response to that. And if we can just let the Bible say something that I think is going to make you uncomfortable, but if we can find out, if we really are Bible believers today, we can find out what the response to that ridicule Ought to be. Notice the set up in Nehemiah chapter number 4. There's definitely something that they're trying to get done. Samballot heard that they were going to build a wall. It made him mad. He was wroth, indignation, and notice the Bible said he mocked. I'm in Nehemiah chapter four. Sorry, I know we were in Genesis two there, but Nehemiah chapter four. You know what it said? He said, as soon as they set about doing what God wanted them to do, it made other people mad, there was great indignation, and guess how they showed their wrath and their indignation? They started making fun of them. They started belittling them. They started putting them down. They're asking the same questions like the devil asked in Genesis chapter 3. Yea, hath God said? Listen, Nehemiah, did God send you over here to build a wall? He said, you've got to be kidding me. Look in verse number 2. He said, what do these feeble Jews? They don't have the ability to build anything. I mean, they're not as big in numbers as we are. They're not as strong as we are. They don't have the architectural prowess that we do. They don't have the construction ability that we have. Who do these feeble Jews think they are? Feeble in those days is comparing them to old people. To people that were geriatric in age, to people that didn't have the ability, walking around on walkers or in wheelchairs, and that were unable to take care of themselves, wearing the pins and can't feed themselves, they're mocking them and making fun of them. And then they go on to say further than that, will they sacrifice? Will they fortify themselves or are they going to be strong enough to fortify themselves? Do they think that whatever they build can protect them against us? And then on top of that, do they even have anything to sacrifice? Are they willing to pay the price that needs to be paid in order to build what they're trying to build? This is almost ridiculous. This is crazy. This is foolish. He's trying to gather individuals that have the same mindset. And might I say to this, he is not doing it with an army or weapons. He's doing it with words. Turn on the air conditioner, please, Brother Roger. It's hot. Can I get a witness? Lord have mercy. It's hot. Turn on the air, please. Notice what he says. He's making fun of them. He said, well, they make the end in a day. They're working so hard. Do they think they're going to get it done in a day? Or, another way to say that is, are they going to be done, what, in a day's time? They're not even going to last a day. The project that they're taking on is a huge project and it can't be done. Do they think they can build a wall? A wall is built not just to keep things out but to keep things in. Do they honestly believe they can build a wall so great, so strong, so big that it will keep us from being in? So much so that when Sam Ballard here, guess what he says? Yeah, if a fox crawls up on it and when they get done with it, I mean, it'll crumble under a little tiny fox's feet. You understand the ridicule, how they're doing. But I want you to see the influence of that ridicule. It's being done with words and words have a tendency to draw people in that are of the same mind. And so what he's doing is, is he's pitching things out. Now, if in fact his words didn't have any power, no one would have gathered and you wouldn't be reading this story. But God puts this story in the Bible to show you words do have an impact. Words can influence, doesn't the Bible say? He says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? So you get saved by words that are in a book, is that right? So words do have an impact. They impacted me at seven years of age. I heard what the Bible said about the condition of my soul. I accepted salvation of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and because of that, I'm now going to heaven and not to hell because of words. I never saw Jesus. But I heard His words, the very same words that He spoke. But I want you to notice the influence of the words. But I've got to say this about the ones being influenced. They were looking for a reason. Or the words they heard would not have influenced them. You know, in the day and time in which we live, I hate to say what I'm about to say. Years ago, people would come to church because they were looking for something. If they were backslidden and they were prodigals, they were glad to come home. They were looking for restitution. They were looking for revitalization. They were looking to be able to have a revival in their own soul. Their fellowship reunited and rejoined and the prodigals would come back. The blackslidden would come home. If they were lost, they would come to church because they thought, you know what? He can tell me how to be out of this lost condition. I'm looking for Jesus. People in the old days came looking for something and words had a great impact. Now listen carefully so you don't misinterpret what I'm about to say. The reason that there is so much false preaching and teaching out in the world today is because there are so many people that are in the market to hear what's being said. In the Bible, in the book of Proverbs, he says that the cure to slander and to the things that are going on as far as gossip is if you take away the ear of the people listening to it. He doesn't say stop the person from talking. He said if you stop the people from listening, that it'll cease. But there's always a market for ears. And what happens is, is the devil knows, just like he watched when he looked at Eve. He says, I know exactly how to get her attention. She's looking for something God doesn't want her to have. And guess what? He doesn't present the tree. He presents words. And he uses words to convince her to go contrary to what God wants him to do. Are you listening to me? This is important. Because if faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, the devil is going to have a counterfeit for those words. And if the Holy Spirit deals with your soul, the devil is going to deal with your flesh, because he can't touch your soul. So He's going to speak to you words that appeal to that naturally rebellious nature inside of us. A fellow asked me this this week, he said, why do you think there is so much unrest right now? I said, because you have a whole bunch of people that are resisting the authority of what the Bible says, and thereby conjuring up demons. He said, what do you mean? I said, the Bible said rebellions is a sin of witchcraft. And stubbornness is as idolatry. That's not just for Christians, that's for any nation that does that. You say, why? Because it's a universal law. You don't need CERN to open up the gateway to the underworld, or open up the gateway to the fourth dimension. All we have to do is fall in line with what the devil says, and do what he wants, and guess what happens? We open up a horde of demonic activity, and people become overly possessed. What happened in Genesis 3? There was no CERN. In Genesis chapter 3, there was no Ouija board, there was no crystal ball. There were no witches, there were no warlocks. It was opened by a woman in a perfect environment who heeded what the devil said instead of what God said. It was just words. And it was words that caused the fall. of mankind. Notice what he says, will they make an end in a day? Will they revive stones out of the heaps of rubbish which are burned? All this is done in a slanderous manner. An attempt for them to say, this is ridiculous. You say, why? Because not only are they garnering other people to listen to them, but they're also trying to discourage those that are working. They're trying to say, the task upon which you are set out to do is bigger than you can accomplish. Who can be a Christian in the day and time in which we live? Trying to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, try to read my Bible, try to pray. Those preachers that expect you to do that, it's ridiculous to do that. Nobody can live up to that standard. Nobody can stop doing all the things you shouldn't do. Why? We're all just human. They try to discourage you from doing what God tells you to do. Because the task is just too big to be done. I mean, after all, how can you forgive somebody that hurts you as bad as they hurt you? Why? Here's the common statement. Well, I know Jesus did that, and He says, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, that I'm supposed to forgive them. But I'm not God. But the Bible said you can do all things through Christ. The Bible said you can do it, but you have to do it if the Bible's right. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. If that's the case, I'm able to accomplish that, but not if I listen to what man says. You say, why? It's not only done as a tactic to garner support, because we get this idea that if they have more support than me, that must make them right. Could I just remind you of a simple little fact? The majority hung Jesus on the cross. The majority is not always right. The majority generally runs by popular opinion. Those are called, in modern nomenclature, they're called polls. Polls are meant to sway you to thinking that if you want to be like everybody else and you want to get along without creating dissension, without creating controversy, if you want to do that, you've got to go along with what the polls say. And the polls say That's done to try to influence you. What does God say? Well, it doesn't matter what God says. This has to do with something that's practical. No, it all has to do with what God says, because now that I'm saved, I'm accountable for every decision that I make from this point forward. Are you with me? Notice what happens to Maiah the Ammonite is by him, and he said, even if they will build, verse number 3, which they build, if a fox go up. In other words, even if you accomplish it, it ain't gonna last. We've had that happen. Brother Sam's been doing camps now for years and years, over ten. We've had some really good camps. And invariably we have some kids that, quote, get right, end quote, at camp. And they come home, and invariably they run into some, I'm sure, well-meaning Tobiah the Ammonite, And they say, well, you may have got right, but it ain't gonna last. I got so frustrated with it one year, I preached a message about not being a wet blanket. I think I head-butted somebody, it might have been Josh. But we were preaching along the lines of, look, maybe their light may go out eventually, but don't be the one that throws water on their fire. We had a bunch of kids, we had an unusually good camp, and the kids were excited, and they were happy to be together, and they didn't want camp to end, if you can imagine. They were in no hurry to get back to their phones, so much so that one lady was mad and said her kid would never go back to camp because we wouldn't let them have their phone. And when that kid came home, he said, Mom, I don't want my phone anymore, it gets me in trouble. And the mom got mad at us. because we had corrupted that child into saying something contrary to mom and the young lady was very distraught and upset because they were like, you ain't going to that camp no more, those people are nuts, that's a cult, who wouldn't want your kid to have a phone? And I got upset because I saw adults playing the part of Sinballad and Tobiah and the Ammonites and the Amorites God was trying to get something done, but it was a little much for the older people. And they used their words to cast disparaging remarks. One of the kids, even back then, wanted to come for the night. We used to, after camp, we'd have them all come up and they'd give testimonies and sing a song and all that. One of the kid's parents wouldn't allow him to come to the evening service. Now, I'm just making an illustration and I'm not going to give you any names. I'm simply here to say this, that Even in the Christian world, you can't be divorced from critics. As a matter of fact, Jesus' greatest critics were the religious crowd that were in the church. Paul's greatest critics were those of his own kind. Our greatest critics, unfortunately, are really not the world. It's each other. Those kids came back, man, they were on fire. They were singing songs and all that other kind of stuff. I mean, they were flying high. They were about that high off the ground. Wore slap out, tired, sunburned, bruised up, all kind of stuff from playing games together. And they're excited and they're in church. And that time we were sectioning off stuff up here because all the kids wanted to sit up front. The parents were like, we ain't sitting up there. And the words began to eat away like a canker. And before long, first one, and then another one, and then another one, and then another one began to go by the wayside until they were scattered because of the criticism of other Christians. Again, I'm not here to preach to the world, I'm here to preach to us. I think if there was ever a time that there should be encouragement, it's now. I don't think it's up to me to determine your physical well-being by telling you what you should do when it comes to how you respond to all of the junk that's going on out there right now. That's not my job. I don't have to live with the repercussions. I'm not a doctor. I'm not an epidemiologist. What I do for the two of us is not the same that you might do for you. I can't judge your spirituality by whether or not you line up with what I choose to do in my set of circumstances. with what we were going through during the past year. She's now one year past both the chemo and the radiation and the surgery. We're just literally just past that this past week, that she's now one year. And thank the Lord she's fine. But during that time, I had to make some decisions and she didn't always like it. You got to stay at the house. You ain't going. And you say, why? Well, I mean, because I know the pressure she was feeling. What will the people think? I don't care. I want to keep you alive. I don't like cooking. That was the big joke. You just want to keep me around for dinner time, okay? You're telling the truth, but you're pretty too. Easy on the eyes. Been with you for 40 years. Really don't want to train Jody. I'm just saying. So I'll admit to you it was selfish, but some of it was also to take the pressure off of her. I don't care. They don't have to live with the repercussions of you being here and getting something and going back to the hospital and dealing with all that junk. They ain't holding the puke bucket for you. They ain't got to hold your hair out of your face while you puke. Thank the Lord my daughter was there to help me. But she could testify if she would. It wasn't fun all the time. But oftentimes we respond because of the critic instead of Christ, if I'm using C's. And instead of having the courage to follow him, we follow them. It's called popular opinion. So as soon as you try to do something for the Lord, guess what happens? Listen, this is for young and old. This is for you've been saved 4 minutes, you've been saved 40 years, you've been saved 100 years. As soon as you try your best to live for the Lord, get back in fellowship, read your Bible, study, pray, come to church, witness and do the things, prepare yourself for eternity, you need to understand the devil is going to show up and say, yeah, God said it, and he's going to do it with words. You need to understand the Sambalets and the Tobias of this world are going to show up and say to you, Hey, yea hath God said, is that really, I mean, do you have to do that? Aren't you endangering yourself to be gathered together? No, you want to stay home, stay home, I'm going. I'll social distance, I'll mask up, I'll do whatever, but don't try to make me with your words because you don't want to go. Don't try to keep me. from going or reading. You don't have to read your Bible to be a Christian. You don't have to read your Bible to be saved. You ain't going to be much of a Christian if you don't. You ain't got to pray to go to heaven. You'll wish you had prayed when you get there. Well, I ain't got to go to church. What else is going to get rid of that rotten attitude? It's so often that the words are used in a sense of trying to gravitationally pull people down to where you are because we can't stand it. They're going to build a wall, something with some height, something with protection, something that speaks of something greater than them. If they're going to build a wall out of burnt stones, don't you think that would testify to the architect? And these folks can't stand it. They'd rather have that debris and stuff there. They'd rather have those burnt stones that testify to how and when Israel had been destroyed. They'd rather have something to mock, belittle, and make fun of. And now, because Nehemiah has gone in and has said to the king, and the king said, what's wrong with your countenance? He goes, my people in that wall, and if we could just get back. And the king said, go ahead. And as soon as they get there, the critics start. Unfortunately, we've yet to learn the lesson that's so plainly laid out for us in the Bible, that not only should we expect critics, but instead of responding to the critics, we should ignore the critics and continue to do what God told us to do. Think about this for a moment, how much time would be saved in your everyday life if you stopped responding to the critics. I call it the doctrine of zero. My wife calls it the doctrine of the hole in the donut. Spending time fighting with critics that no matter what you say and how true it may be, you're never going to move their opinion in one way or the other, and yet while you're fighting that, the stuff God wants you to get done doesn't get done because you're so busy fighting something you're never going to change. Fighting criticism makes us look at ourself and recognize there's an inferiority in our own self that makes us have the audacity to believe that everybody should like us. We're so full of pride that we don't think we ever do anything wrong, and how dare anybody speak of anything we're doing, yet Jesus comes and they mock, belittle, and make fun of Him. how often it is that we become, forget what they do to us, we become experts in other people's lives. Instead of letting God handle it, we make the decision that we know what's best for somebody else. Are you staying with me? I'm talking about critics. Critics are like getting an apple and biting into it and finding a half a worm. You're the only one taking a bite. And you recognize right off the bat, there was a little protein in that apple. Criticism doesn't do anything to change the fact you already ate half the worm. Notice in the passage here, let's look and see and let me hurry what Nehemiah does. The first thing I'd like to say is that some people fear ridicule more than they fear God or even death. What does Nehemiah do, preacher? Look in verse number 4 and look at the first four words. What does he say? The first thing he does is he doesn't argue with them. He doesn't say they're wrong. He doesn't say they're right. He literally says, talk to the hand, the head ain't hearing. The first thing he does is take the problem to the Lord. Lord, I'm doing what you told me to do. I'm building a wall. And these people are in my kitchen, man. I mean, they are eating me up. And they're discouraging my people. Their hands hang down. They're weak. They're feeble. They're discouraged because of the words of these people. These people don't even have a legitimate army. They're just an occupational force. Lord, these people are holding up Your work. Watch what He says. Verse number 4, Hear, O God, for we are despised, telling Him not social media. He's not playing the woe is me pity party card. He's not saying, look how spiritual we are Lord, we're here doing it. He's saying, Lord, they despise us for what we're trying to do for you. He doesn't take an ad out in the newspaper. He doesn't play the woe is me and the pity party card to the point that he's trying to garner support because people have empathy and or sympathy for his position. He's saying, Lord, they despise us. We didn't do anything. We're just doing what you told us to do. I'm just preaching. They despise me. I'm witnessing. They despise me. I'm singing. They despise me. I go to church. They despise me. I read my Bible. They despise me. Lord, I'm just doing what you said to do. There's nothing wrong with me. But we're despised. Notice he says, "...and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for prey to the land of captivity." You know what he doesn't do? He doesn't debate with them. He doesn't even rebuke them. He doesn't give them the credibility that their argument holds any validity whatsoever. He doesn't justify them by answering them or by giving them a response. He just says, They despise you, they despise us. How about you take care of the problem for us because we don't have time to mess with it, we got a wall to build. Can I say this too if I can maybe make it in a practical sense and I'm trying to hurry? Men and ladies, you have a wall to build in your own family, with your own family, with your own kids. Whether it's popular or not, it's right to do and raise those kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Men, it's right for you to set the example for your wife and kids. It's right for you to put on your big boy britches and be the leader in your family spiritually. It shouldn't be that the woman is the one that comes all the time. It should be the man comes all the time and praying that the woman will follow in the steps. I know, I know, you're despising me already. But I'm just simply saying, notice he doesn't rebuke them, notice he doesn't debate with them, and notice he doesn't even answer their questions. Can I say this according to Titus, and we won't turn there, that the Bible said don't give heed to those kinds of questions that gender strifes and cause divisions. You know what he said? You don't have to respond to that. In Timothy he says, So don't argue with them. Nehemiah has already learned the lesson. He doesn't refute them. He doesn't even defend his own people. In verses 4 and 5, he turns them over to God, and then guess what he does? He gets back to work because the reason they're talking is to stop the work. That's the only reason they're talking. They can't stop God, so you know what they want to do? They want to stop His work. I want to say something here because in verse number six they also finish the wall. They get the wall about half built and the people get upset, and then the guys come together and now they're all mad about it and those kind of things because things are moving along. But all that's found in verse number six. Then when you go to the top of the next thing, if you got an old school field up there, you look at the people that have come together to join up. Nehemiah says, ''Lord, what are we going to do about this?'' He prays and then Judah comes in and speaks for the whole people and says, ''There's too much rubbish in this.'' Because why? Because the words are beginning to have an impact on the people. Nehemiah, we can't do this. There's too much rubbish. Well, the Lord wouldn't have had you start it if He didn't think you could do it. But oftentimes, the impact of negative people begin to make you question and doubt yourself and question, did God really tell me to do this? I wondered in when I was applying this whether or not Noah, if he'd have listened for 120 years, if he had listened to those people that were laughing at him saying that a rain wasn't coming and a flood wasn't coming and he shouldn't be building the ark, I wonder would Noah have drowned? Yes, he would have. But you know what Noah did? He did what God told him to do in spite of the naysayers. You know what he told Moses, and Moses gets ready to go out across to Egypt, and he gets on the back side of the desert. The Lord said, go over there and tell them, let my people go. And the people say, Moses, we're going to stone you. We don't like you. We don't want nothing to do with you. You're crazy. You're a nut job. You came over here to deliver us, and ever since you came over here, every time you walk in to speak to Pharaoh, he turns around and makes it hard on us. Moses, it's all your part. and Moses just keeps on and keeps on and keeps on until the next thing you know, more than a million people leave that place and go out there and cross the Red Sea, one of the greatest miracles in all the Bible, because Moses wasn't deterred nor discouraged by what the people said. But words can have a tremendous impact. What you say to those that are in your purview or in your care makes a difference. The words from a father or a mother at the wrong time, the wrong place, the wrong way can do permanent damage. The words from a Christian spoken to another Christian can do permanent damage along the way. I wondered when I looked at the passage if the law would have been built in modern day times, because in modern day times we would have been taking polls to see whether or not we were going to do what God said, instead of just doing it and letting Him take care of the enemies. Because now we have professional debaters. Now we have our own professional revilers. We're spending a lot of time, and I have to speak about my folks, we're spending a lot of time reviling people, mocking people, belittling people because they're not in line with how we're handling things. We're spending a lot of times talking about how they're handling things as if we're the one to determine whether or not it's what God wants them to do or not. Instead of just doing what God told us to do. And some of you in a personal way are upset because you're here and some other people aren't because you think everybody should be here. But it's not your wall. And as much as God may have told you to be here, He may have told them to stay at the house. But here's what I want you to see, and I'm done. Instead of Nehemiah adding credibility to their argument, He simply says, Lord, can you take care of that? Because it is bothering me. It's upsetting me enough I'm going to go to prayer about it. But you told me to build a wall. Can I say in your mind's eye, can I just give you an idea, a picture? Sam Ballat and Tobiah don't have an army with bulldozers. and skid steers and cranes and cats and they're all winding up out there and pulling the stones out of the way, undermining the foundation, doing all of those things. It's simply a small group of individuals who've come together and with words they're trying to stop the work. Just words. Preacher, people ought to toughen up a little bit, okay? But for those of us that aren't so tough, what do I do? Well, Nehemiah gives you the example. I wonder if Eve had said, hang on just a minute. I'm looking at something I shouldn't be looking at. And when you just said, yea, yea, God said, I'm going to check and make sure I don't have my wires crossed before I respond to you. Where Eve got in trouble was, is she started contending with and having a conversation with the devil. And as soon as she did, the second she started, she lost the argument. Because it should have never been discussed. The devil just said, hey, is that what God said? What should have Eve done? Hey Adam, having a good day today? Where have you been? I was out in the garden. What are you doing? Looking at a tree. Running into anything out there? Some guy tried to talk to me, but I came to the house. Some guy tried to talk to you? Yeah, he tried. But did you talk back to him? Well, his argument seemed to make sense and when I started it, I didn't intend for it to go where it went. Well, honey, somebody went by and took a picture. You're out there talking to this guy and I'm just saying the picture looks like you were up to something. And all you had you was in a conversation, was it? Well, it started with a conversation, but before long it ended in a conversion and a complication, all because of a conversation. Eve started talking. And that got her in trouble. Two more quick illustrations. The devil comes to the Lord to show you the difference. And he even quotes scripture out of context and takes some stuff out. The Lord doesn't even respond, except to say, it is written. It is written. It is written. He didn't respond with his own word, he responded with God's words. And guess what happened? The devil said, I'm out of here. I can't fight that. I can't even get him into an argument. He's just got to throw Bible at me all the time. And so what happens? The Lord leaves the wilderness. The angel comes to comfort him. The Lord leaves the wilderness. And after the Lord leaves the wilderness, he goes about and has his ministry for three and a half years. The devil doesn't quit messing with him, but he realizes he can't get him tied up in a conversation. Christian, if you could understand that when you try to do something for the Lord, The conversations are going to start. But you have to pick which ones you choose to be involved in. And Nehemiah said, Lord, take care of this last illustration. Michael comes down to dig up the body of Moses. And the Lord said, when you go down there now, don't get in a conversation with the devil. He said, I guarantee you he's going to show up. Because the atonement's not complete yet, and I'm sending you down there to get a body, and I want you to get the body and bring him up here. I've got special purposes for it, but I'm telling you, he's going to show up. When he shows up and he starts trying to get you to talk, here's what you say. The Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. Get the body, pick up your shovel, and get on back to the house. And sure enough, he goes down there. He's digging up the body of Moses. He's got him picked up now, he goes over his shoulder, he's getting ready to fly out of there. The devil said, hey, you can't do that. And Michael said, the Lord rebuked thee, oh Satan, I'm out of here. All the devil was trying to do was get him to start talking. It's important as a Christian to know you don't have to answer every critic and every question. It's an attempt to get you in a conversation. And most times derail you from doing what God wanted you to do. Preacher, what do I do? I have more critics now than I've ever had. People are mad and people are upset. Lord, can you take care of this? Why don't you respond to me? How rude of you! Now kids, you can't say that to your parents if they ask you that. Are you the devil? I'm not talking to you. The Lord rebuked thee, oh Satan. But contextually, if you could learn to understand, you don't have to give every critic a platform. I think I said last. Did I say last? That was the last illustration. Here's my last point. The only reason they were being attacked was because God was using human instruments to do what He wanted done. And the greater or the bigger picture was they were down there on God's business and the devil was trying to stop it. The Lord using human instruments and the devil using human instruments. And the only reason they even got His attention was because they were busy doing what God said sometimes. conflict in your life is because you're trying to do something that God wants you to do. So put your head down, keep your mouth shut, and just keep doing it until He blows the horn. Let's stand together and be dismissed.